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54 


EXPOSITIONS   OF   HOLY  SCRIPTURE 


Expositions  of  Holy  Scripture 

A  Commentary  on  the  Entire  Bible, 
to  be  Completed  in  Thirty  Volumes 

ALEXANDER  MACLAREN,  P.P.,  LIT.D. 

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ER.  Alexander  Maclaren's  incomparable  position  as  the  prince 
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What  Ministers  say  of  Dr.  Madaren 

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exander Maclaren  is  the  King  of  Preach- 
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D. :  "  He  is  the  Prince  oi  Expositors." 

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en is  one  of  those  exceptional  men  who 
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tion, apt  and  picturesque  illustrations." 


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ministers  any  similar  body  of  production 
— ancient  or  modem." — The  Observer ^ 
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FIRST  SERIES,  SIX  VOLUMES 
Gknksis  Isaiah  Jeremiah  St.  Matthew  (3  vols.) 

SECOND  SERIES,  SIX  VOLUMES 

Exodus,  Leviticus  and  Numbers  Deuteronomy,  Joshua 

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Ezekiel,  Daniel  and  the  Minor  Prophets  Romans 


ST.  PAUL'S  EPISTLE  TO  THE 

^^•(  OF  PfJ/,^ 

ROMANS 


1954 


BY 

ALEXANDER    MACLAREN 

D.D.,  LiTT.D. 


NEW  YORK 
A.   C.   ARMSTRONG  AND   SON 

3  &  5  WEST  EIGHTEENTH  STREET 

LONDON:  HODDER  AND  STOUGHTON 

MCMK 


CONTENTS 


The  Witness  op  the  Resurrection  (Romans  i.  4,  R.V.) 

Privileob  and  Obligation  (Romans  i.  7) 

Paul's  Longing  (Romans  i.  11, 12)  • 

Debtors  to  all  Men  (Romans  i.  14)         • 

The  Gospel  the  Power  of  God  (Romans  i.  16) 

Paul's  Longing  (Romans  iii.  19-26)  . 

No  Difference  (Romans  iii.  22)    .  • 

*Lbt  us  Have  Peace'  (Romans  v.  1,  R.V.) 

Access  into  Grace  (Romans  v.  2)  • 

The  Sources  of  Hope  (Romans  v.  24)    • 

A  Threefold  Cord  (Romans  v.  5)  • 

What  Proves  God's  Love  (Romans  v.  8) 

The  Warring  Queens  (Romans  v.  21)     , 


PAOB 
1 

6 

13 

22 
80 
46 
62 
61 
67 
77 
86 
05 
104 


vi  EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS 

•  The  Form  of  Teaching  '  (Eomans  vi.  17)  • 

•  Tht  Free  Spirit  '  (Romans  viii.  2)         ,  , 

Christ  Condemning  Sin  (Romans  viii.  3)  • 

The  Witness  op  the  Spirit  (Romans  viii.  16)  . 

Sons  and  Heirs  (Romans  viii.  17)  .  . 

Suffering  with  Christ,  A  Condition  of  Glory  with 
Christ  (Romans  viii.  17)      ,  .  . 

The  Revelation  of  Sons  (Romans  viii.  19)  . 

The  Redemption  of  the  Body  (Romans  viii.  23) 

The  Interceding  Spirit  (Romans  viii.  26)  . 

The  Gift  that  Brings  All  Gifts  (Romans  viii.  32) 

More  than  Conquerors  (Romans  viii.  37)  • 

Love's  Triumph  (Romans  viii.  38,  39)        •  . 

The  Sacrifice  of  the  Body  (Romans  xii.  1)       , 

Transfiguration  (Romans  xii.  2)  ,  , 

Sober  Thinking  (Romans  xii.  3)    .  ,  • 

Many  and  One  (Romans  xii.  4,  5)  •  » 


CONTENTS 

Gbacb  and  Graces  (Romans  zii.  6-8)        . 
LOVB  THAT  CAN  Hatb  (Romans  xii.  9,  10,  R.V.)    . 
A  Triplet  of  Graces  (Romans  xii.  11)    .  , 

Another  Triplet  op  Graces  (Romans  xii.  12) 
Still  Another  Triplet  (Romans  xii.  13-15) 
Still  Another  Triplet  (Romans  xii.  16,  R.V.)    . 
Still  Another  Triplet  (Romans  xii.  17, 18,  R.V.) 
Still  Another  Triplet  (Romans  xii.  19-21) 
Love  and  the  Day  (Romans  xiii.  8-14)     .  , 

Salvation  Nearer  (Romans  xiii.  11)       ,  , 

The  Soldier's  Mobning-Call  (Romans  xiii,  12) 
The  Limits  of  Liberty  (Romans  xiv.  12-23) 
Two  Fountains,  One  Stream  (Romans  xv.  4,  13) 
Joy  and  Peace  in  Believing  (Romans  xv.  13) 
Phcbbe  (Romans  xvi.  1,  2,  R.V.)     .  .  • 

Priscilla  and  Aquila  (Romans  xvi.  3-5)  . 

Two  Households  (Romans  xvi.  10, 11)      ,  , 


vu 

PAOB 

252 


261 

267 
273 
281 
287 
295 
300 
304 
309 
317 
323 
330 
344 
352 
357 
365 


viii         EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS 


Trtphena  akd  Tbtphosa  (Romans  zvi.  12) 
Pebsis  (Romans  xvi.  12)    .  •  • 

A  Crushed  Snake  (Romans  xvi.  20)        • 
Tbbtius  (Romans  xvi.  22,  R.V.)     .  , 

QuABTUS  A  Bbotheb  (Romans  xvi.  23)    . 


PAQB 

374 


388 


300 


THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  RESURRECTION 

'Declared  to  be  the  Son  of  God  with  power,  ...  by  the  resurrection  of  the 
dead.'— Romans  i.  4  (R.V.). 

It  is  a  great  mistake  to  treat  Paul's  writings,  and 
especially  this  Epistle,  as  mere  theology.  They  are  the 
transcript  of  his  life's  experience.  As  has  been  well 
said,  the  gospel  of  Paul  is  an  interpretation  of  the 
significance  of  the  life  and  work  of  Jesus  based  upon 
the  revelation  to  him  of  Jesus  as  the  risen  Christ.  He 
believed  that  he  had  seen  Jesus  on  the  road  to  Damas- 
cus, and  it  was  that  appearance  which  revolutionised 
his  life,  turned  him  from  a  persecutor  into  a  dis- 
ciple, and  united  him  with  the  Apostles  as  ordained 
to  be  a  witness  with  them  of  the  Resurrection.  To 
them  all  the  Resurrection  of  Jesus  was  first  of  all  a 
historical  fact  appreciated  chiefly  in  its  bearing  on 
Him.  By  degrees  they  discerned  that  so  transcendent  a 
fact  bore  in  itself  a  revelation  of  what  would  become 
the  experience  of  all  His  followers  beyond  the  grave, 
and  a  symbol  of  the  present  life  possible  for  them.  All 
three  of  these  aspects  are  plainly  declared  in  Paul's 
writings.  In  our  text  it  is  chiefly  the  first  which  is 
made  prominent.  All  that  distinguishes  Christianity, 
and  makes  it  worth  believing,  or  mighty,  is  inseparably 
connected  with  the  Resurrection. 

I.  The  Resurrection  of  Christ  declares  His  Sonship. 

Resurrection  and  Ascension  are  inseparably  connected. 
Jesus  does  not  rise  to  share  again  in  the  ills  and 
A 


2  EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS      [ch.  i. 

weariness  of  humanity.  Risen,  '  He  dieth  no  more ; 
death  hath  no  more  dominion  over  Him.'  'He  died 
unto  sin  once  ' ;  and  His  risen  humanity  had  nothing 
in  it  on  which  physical  death  could  lay  hold.  That 
He  should  from  some  secluded  dimple  on  Olivet  ascend 
before  the  gazing  disciples  until  the  bright  cloud,  which 
was  the  symbol  of  the  Divine  Presence,  received  Him 
out  of  their  sight,  was  but  the  end  of  the  process  which 
began  unseen  in  morning  twilight.  He  laid  aside  the 
garments  of  the  grave  and  passed  out  of  the  sepulchre 
which  was  made  sure  by  the  great  stone  rolled  against 
its  mouth.  The  grand  avowal  of  faith  in  His  Resurrec- 
tion loses  meaning,  unless  it  is  completed  as  Paul 
completed  his  '  yea  rather  that  was  raised  from  the 
dead,'  with  the  triumphant  *  who  is  at  the  right  hand 
of  God.'  Both  are  supernatural,  and  the  Virgin  Birth 
corresponds  at  the  beginning  to  the  supernatural 
Resurrection  and  Ascension  at  the  close.  Both  such  an 
entrance  into  the  world  and  such  a  departure  from  it, 
proclaim  at  once  His  true  humanity,  and  that  *  this  is 
the  Son  of  God.' 

Still  further,  the  Resurrection  is  God's  solemn  *  Amen ' 
to  the  tremendous  claims  which  Christ  had  made. 
The  fact  of  His  Resurrection,  indeed,  would  not  declare 
His  divinity;  but  the  Resurrection  of  One  who  had 
spoken  such  words  does.  If  the  Cross  and  a  nameless 
grave  had  been  the  end,  what  a  reductio  ad  absurdum 
that  would  have  been  to  the  claims  of  Jesus  to  have  ever 
been  with  the  Father  and  to  be  doing  always  the  things 
that  pleased  Him.  The  Resurrection  is  God's  last  and 
loudest  proclamation,  'This  is  My  beloved  Son:  hear 
ye  Him.'  The  Psalmist  of  old  had  learned  to  trust  that 
his  sonship  and  consecration  to  the  Father  made  it 
impossible  that  that  Father  should  leave  his  soul  in 


V.  4]     WITNESS  OF  RESURRECTION  3 

Sheol,  or  suffer  one  who  was  knit  to  Him  by  such 
sacred  bonds  to  see  corruption ;  and  the  unique  Sonship 
and  perfect  self-consecration  of  Jesus  went  down  into 
the  grave  in  the  assured  confidence,  as  He  Himself 
declared,  that  the  third  day  He  would  rise  again.  The 
old  alternative  seems  to  retain  all  its  sharp  points: 
Either  Christ  rose  again  from  the  dead,  or  His  claims 
are  a  series  of  blasphemous  arrogances  and  His 
character  irremediably  stained. 

But  we  may  also  remember  that  Scripture  not  only 
represents  Christ's  Resurrection  as  a  divine  act  but  also 
as  the  act  of  Christ's  own  power.  In  His  earthly  life 
He  asserted  that  His  relation  both  to  physical  death 
and  to  resurrection  was  an  entirely  unique  one.  *I 
have  power,'  said  He,  '  to  lay  down  my  life,  and  I  have 
power  to  take  it  again ' ;  and  yet,  even  in  this  tremend- 
ous instance  of  self-assertion,  He  remains  the  obedient 
Son,  for  He  goes  on  to  say,  '  This  commandment  have 
I  received  of  My  Father.'  If  these  claims  are  just,  then 
it  is  vain  to  stumble  at  the  miracles  which  Jesus  did  in 
His  earthly  life.  If  He  could  strip  it  off  and  resume 
it,  then  obviously  it  was  not  a  life  like  other  men's. 
The  whole  phenomenon  is  supernatural,  and  we  shall 
not  be  in  the  true  position  to  understand  and  appreci- 
ate it  and  Him  until,  like  the  doubting  Thomas,  we 
fall  at  the  feet  of  the  risen  Son,  and  breathe  out  loyalty 
and  worship  in  that  rapturous  exclamation,  *  My  Lord 
and  my  God.' 

II.  The  Resurrection  interprets  Christ's  Death. 

There  is  no  more  striking  contrast  than  that  between 
the  absolute  non-receptivity  of  the  disciples  in  regard 
to  all  Christ's  plain  teachings  about  His  death  and  their 
clear  perception  after  Pentecost  of  the  mighty  power 
that  lay  in  it.     The  very  fact  that   they  continued 


4  EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS      [ch.  i. 

disciples  at  all,  and  that  there  continued  to  be  such  a 
community  as  the  Church,  demands  their  belief  in  the 
Resurrection  as  the  only  cause  which  can  account  for  it. 
If  He  did  not  rise  from  the  dead,  and  if  His  followers 
did  not  know  that  He  did  so  by  the  plainest  teachings  of 
common-sense,  they  ought  to  have  scattered,  and  borne 
in  isolated  hearts  the  bitter  memories  of  disappointed 
hopes ;  for  if  He  lay  in  a  nameless  grave,  and  they  were 
not  sure  that  He  was  risen  from  the  dead,  His  death 
would  have  been  a  conclusive  showing  up  of  the  falsity 
of  His  claims.  In  it  there  would  have  been  no  atoning 
power,  no  triumph  over  sin.  If  the  death  of  Christ 
were  not  followed  by  His  Resurrection  and  Ascension, 
the  whole  fabric  of  Christianity  falls  to  pieces.  As  the 
Apostle  puts  it  in  his  great  chapter  on  resurrection, 
'  Ye  are  yet  in  your  sins.'  The  forgiveness  which  the 
Gospel  holds  forth  to  men  does  not  depend  on  the 
mercy  of  God  or  on  the  mere  penitence  of  man,  but 
upon  the  offering  of  the  one  sacrifice  for  sins  in  His 
death,  which  is  justified  by  His  Resurrection  as  being 
accepted  by  God.  If  we  cannot  triumphantly  pro- 
claim *  Christ  is  risen  indeed,'  we  have  nothing  worth 
preaching. 

We  are  told  now  that  the  ethics  of  Christianity  are 
its  vital  centre,  which  will  stand  out  more  plainly 
when  purified  from  these  mystical  doctrines  of  a  Death 
as  the  sin-offering  for  the  world,  and  a  Resurrection  as 
the  great  token  that  that  offering  avails.  Paul  did  not 
think  so.  To  him  the  morality  of  the  Gospel  was  all 
deduced  from  the  life  of  Christ  the  Son  of  God  as  our 
Example,  and  from  His  death  for  us  which  touches  men's 
hearts  and  makes  obedience  to  Him  our  joyful  answer 
to  what  He  has  done  for  us.  Christianity  is  a  new  thing 
in  the  world,  not  as  moral  teaching,  but  as  moral  power 


V.  4]      WITNESS  OF  RESURRECTION  5 

to  obey  that  teaching,  and  that  depends  on  the  Cross 
interpreted  by  the  Resurrection.  If  we  have  only  a 
dead  Christ,  we  have  not  a  living  Christianity. 

III.  Resurrection  points  onwards  to  Christ's  coming 
again. 

Paul  at  Athens  declared  in  the  hearing  of  supercilious 
Greek  philosophers,  that  the  Jesus,  whom  he  proclaimed 
to  them,  was  'the  Man  whom  God  had  ordained  to 
judge  the  world  in  righteousness,'  and  that  *  He  had 
given  assurance  thereof  unto  all  men,  in  that  He  raised 
Him  from  the  dead.'  The  Resurrection  was  the  begin- 
ning of  the  process  which,  from  the  human  point  of 
view,  culminated  in  the  Ascension.  Beyond  the  Ascen- 
sion stretches  the  supernatural  life  of  the  glorified  Son 
of  God.  Olivet  cannot  be  the  end,  and  the  words  of 
the  two  men  in  white  apparel  who  stood  amongst  the 
little  group  of  the  upward  gazing  friends,  remain  as 
the  hope  of  the  Church :  '  This  same  Jesus  shall  so 
come  in  like  manner  as  ye  have  seen  Him  go  into 
heaven.'  That  great  assurance  implies  a  visible  cor- 
poreal return  locally  defined,  and  having  for  its  pur- 
pose to  complete  the  work  which  Incarnation,  Death, 
Resurrection,  and  Ascension,  each  advanced  a  stage. 
The  Resurrection  is  the  corner-stone  of  the  whole 
Christian  faith.  It  seals  the  truths  that  Jesus  is  the 
Son  of  God  with  power,  that  He  died  for  us,  that  He 
has  ascended  on  high  to  prepare  a  place  for  us,  that 
He  will  come  again  and  take  us  to  Himself.  If  we,  by 
faith  in  Him,  take  for  ours  the  women's  greeting  on 
that  Easter  morning,  '  The  Lord  hath  risen  indeed,'  He 
will  come  to  us  with  His  own  greeting,  •  Peace  be  unto 
you.' 


PRIVILEGE  AND  OBLIGATION 

'  To  all  that  be  in  Rome,  beloved  of  God,  called  to  be  saints.'— Romans  i.  7. 

This  is  the  address  of  the  Epistle.  The  first  thing  to 
be  noticed  about  it,  by  way  of  introduction,  is  the 
universality  of  this  designation  of  Christians.  Paul 
had  never  been  in  Rome,  and  knew  very  little  about 
the  religious  stature  of  the  converts  there.  But  he 
has  no  hesitation  in  declaring  that  they  are  all  'be- 
loved of  God '  and  '  saints.'  There  were  plenty  of 
imperfect  Christians  amongst  them ;  many  things  to 
rebuke;  much  deadness,  coldness,  inconsistency,  and 
yet  none  of  these  in  the  slightest  degree  interfered 
with  the  application  of  these  great  designations  to 
them.  So,  then, '  beloved  of  God '  and  *  saints '  are  not 
distinctions  of  classes  within  the  pale  of  Christianity, 
but  belong  to  the  whole  community,  and  to  each 
member  of  the  body. 

The  next  thing  to  note,  I  think,  is  how  these  two  great 
terms, '  beloved  of  God '  and  *  saints,'  cover  almost  the 
whole  ground  of  the  Christian  life.  They  are  connected 
with  each  other  very  closely,  as  I  shall  have  occasion 
to  show  presently,  but  in  the  meantime  it  may  be 
sufficient  to  mark  how  the  one  carries  us  deep  into  the 
heart  of  God  and  the  other  extends  over  the  whole 
ground  of  our  relation  to  Him.  The  one  is  a  statement 
of  a  universal  prerogative,  the  other  an  enforcement  of 
a  universal  obligation.  Let  us  look,  then,  at  these  two 
points,  the  universal  privilege  and  the  universal  obli- 
gation of  the  Christian  life. 

I.  The  universal  privilege  of  the  Christian  life. 


V.7]     PRIVILEGE  AND  OBLIGATION        7 

'  Beloved  of  God.'  Now  we  are  so  familiar  with 
the  juxtaposition  of  the  two  ideas,  *  love '  and  '  God,' 
that  we  cease  to  feel  the  wonderfulness  of  their  union. 
But  until  Jesus  Christ  had  done  His  work  no  man 
believed  that  the  two  thoughts  could  be  brought 
together. 

Does  God  love  any  one  ?  We  think  the  question  too 
plain  to  need  to  be  put,  and  the  answer  instinctive. 
But  it  is  not  by  any  means  instinctive,  and  the  fact  is 
that  until  Christ  answered  it  for  us,  the  world  stood 
dumb  before  the  question  that  its  own  heart  raised, 
and  when  tortured  spirits  asked,  'Is  there  care  in 
heaven,  and  is  there  love?' there  was  'no  voice,  nor 
answer,  nor  any  that  regarded.'  Think  of  the  facts  of 
life ;  think  of  the  facts  of  nature.  Think  of  sorrows 
and  miseries  and  pains,  and  sins,  and  wasted  lives  and 
storms,  and  tempests,  and  diseases,  and  convulsions; 
and  let  us  feel  how  true  the  grim  saying  is,  that 

•  Nature,  red  in  tooth  and  claw, 
With  rapine,  shrieks  against  the  creed ' 

that  God  is  love. 

And  think  of  what  the  world  has  worshipped,  and  of 
all  the  varieties  of  monstrosity,  not  the  less  monstrous 
because  sometimes  beautiful,  before  which  men  have 
bowed.  Cruel,  lustful,  rapacious,  capricious,  selfish,  indif- 
ferent deities  they  have  adored.  And  then,  '  God  hath 
established,'  proved,  demonstrated  '  His  love  to  us  in 
that  while  we  were  yet  sinners  Christ  died  for  us.' 

Oh,  brethren,  do  not  let  us  kick  down  the  ladder  by 
which  we  have  climbed ;  or,  in  the  name  of  a  loving 
God,  put  away  the  Christian  teaching  which  has  be- 
gotten the  conception  in  humanity  of  a  God  that  loves. 
There  are  men  to-day  who  would  never  have  come 


8  EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS      [ch.  i. 

within  sight  of  that  sunlight  truth,  even  as  a  glimmer- 
ing star,  away  down  upon  the  horizon,  if  it  had  not 
been  for  the  Gospel ;  and  who  now  turn  round  upon 
that  very  Gospel  which  has  given  them  the  conception, 
and  accuse  it  of  narrow  and  hard  thoughts  of  the 
love  of  God. 

One  of  the  Scripture  truths  against  which  the 
assailant  often  turns  his  sharpest  weapons  is  that 
which  is  involved  in  my  text,  the  Scripture  answer  to 
the  other  question,  'Does  not  God  love  all?'  Yes! 
yes !  a  thousand  times,  yes !  But  there  is  another 
question,  Does  the  love  of  God,  to  all,  make  His  special 
designation  of  Christian  men  as  His  beloved  the  least 
unlikely  ?  Surely  there  is  no  kind  of  contradiction  be- 
tween the  broadest  proclamation  of  the  universality  of 
the  love  of  God  and  Paul's  decisive  declaration  that, 
in  a  very  deep  and  real  manner,  they  who  are  in  Christ 
are  the  beloved  of  God.  Surely  special  affection  is  not 
in  its  nature,  inconsistent  with  universal  beneficence 
and  benevolence.  Surely  it  is  no  exaltation,  but  rather 
a  degradation  of  the  conception  of  the  divine  love,  if 
we  proclaim  its  utter  indifference  to  men's  characters. 
Surely  you  are  not  honouring  God  when  you  say,  *  It  is 
all  the  same  to  Him  whether  a  man  loves  Him  and 
serves  Him,  or  lifts  himself  up  in  rebellion  against  Him, 
and  makes  himself  his  own  centre,  and  earth  his  aim 
and  his  all.'  Surely  to  imagine  a  God  who  not  only  makes 
His  sun  to  shine  and  His  rains  and  dews  to  fall  on  the 
unthankful  and  the  evil,  that  He  may  draw  them  to 
love  Him,  but  who  also  is  conceived  as  taking  the 
sinful  creature  who  yet  cleaves  to  his  sins  to  His  heart, 
as  He  does  the  penitent  soul  that  longs  for  His  image  to 
be  produced  in  it,  is  to  blaspheme,  and  not  to  honour 
the  love,  the  universal  love  of  God. 


V.  7]     PRIVILEGE  AND  OBLIGATION        9 

God  forbid  that  any  words  that  ever  drop  from  my 
lips  should  seem  to  cast  the  smallest  shadow  of  doubt 
on  that  great  truth, '  God  so  loved  the  world  that  He 
gave  His  Son!'  But  God  forbid,  equally,  that  any 
words  of  mine  should  seem  to  favour  the,  to  me, 
repellent  idea  that  the  infinite  love  of  God  disregards 
the  character  of  the  man  on  whom  it  falls.  There  are 
manifestations  of  that  loving  heart  which  any  man 
can  receive ;  and  each  man  gets  as  much  of  the  love  of 
God  as  it  is  possible  to  pour  upon  him.  But  granite 
rock  does  not  drink  in  the  dew  as  a  flower  does ;  and 
the  nature  of  the  man  on  whom  God's  love  falls  deter- 
mines how  much,  and  what  manner  of  its  manifesta- 
tions shall  pass  into  his  true  possession,  and  what  shall 
remain  without. 

So,  on  the  whole,  we  have  to  answer  the  questions, 
'  Does  God  love  any  ?  Does  not  God  love  all  ?  Does  God 
specially  love  some  ? '  with  the  one  monosyllable, '  Yes. 

And  so,  dear  brethren,  let  us  learn  the  path  by  which 
we  can  pass  into  that  blessed  community  of  those  on 
whom  the  fullness  and  sweetness  and  tenderest  tender- 
ness of  the  Father's  heart  will  fall.  '  If  a  man  love  Me, 
he  will  keep  My  words  ;  and  My  Father  will  love  him.' 
Myths  tell  us  that  the  light  which,  at  the  beginning, 
had  been  diffused  through  a  nebulous  mass,  was  next 
gathered  into  a  sun.  So  the  universal  love  of  God  is 
concentrated  in  Jesus  Christ ;  and  if  we  have  Him  we 
have  it ;  and  if  we  have  faith  we  have  Him,  and  can 
say,  'Neither  life,  nor  death,  nor  things  present,  nor 
things  to  come,  nor  height,  nor  depth,  nor  any  other 
creature  shall  be  able  to  separate  us  from  the  love  of 
God  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord.' 

II.  Then,  secondly,  mark  the  universal  obligation  of 
the  Christian  life. 


10  EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS     [ch.  i. 

'Called  to  be  saints,'  says  my  text.  Now  you  will 
observe  that  the  two  little  words  *  to  be '  are  inserted 
here  as  a  supplement.  They  may  be  correct  enough,  but 
they  are  open  to  the  possibility  of  misunderstanding, 
as  if  the  saintship,  to  which  all  Christian  people  are 
•  called,'  was  something  future,  and  not  realised  at  the 
moment.  Now,  in  the  context,  the  Apostle  employs  the 
same  form  of  expression  with  regard  to  himself  in  a 
clause  which  illuminates  the  meaning  of  my  text. 
'  Paul,  a  servant  of  Jesus  Christ,'  says  he,  in  the  first 
verse,  '  called  to  be  an  Apostle,'  or,  more  correctly,  *  a 
called  Apostle.'  The  apostleship  coincided  in  time  with 
the  call,  was  contemporaneous  with  that  which  was  its 
cause.  And  if  Paul  was  an  Apostle  since  he  was  called, 
saints  are  saints  since  they  are  called.  '  The  beloved  of 
God '  are  '  the  called  saints.'  > 

I  need  only  observe,  further,  that  the  word  '  called ' 
here  does  not  mean  'named,'  or  'designated,'  but 
'summoned.'  It  describes  not  the  name  by  which 
Christian  men  are  known,  but  the  thing  which  they  are 
invited,  summoned,  '  called '  by  God  to  be.  It  is  their 
vocation,  not  their  designation.  Now,  then,  I  need  not, 
I  suppose,  remind  you  that  '  saint '  and  '  holy '  convey 
precisely  the  same  idea :  the  one  expressing  it  in  a 
word  of  Teutonic,  and  the  other  in  one  of  classic 
derivation. 

We  notice  that  the  true  idea  of  this  universal  holi- 
ness which,  ipso  facto,  belongs  to  all  Christian  people, 
is  consecration  to  God.  In  the  old  days  temple,  altars, 
sacrifices,  sacrificial  vessels,  persons  such  as  priests, 
periods  like  Sabbaths  and  feasts,  were  called  'holy.' 
The  common  idea  running  through  all  these  uses  of  the 
word  is  belonging  to  God,  and  that  is  the  root  notion 
of   the  New  Testament  'saint,'  a  man  who  is  God's. 


V.7]     PRIVILEGE  AND  OBLIGATION       11 

God  has  claimed  us  for  Himself  when  He  gave  us  Jesus 
Christ.  We  respond  to  the  claim  when  we  accept 
Christ.  Henceforth  we  are  not  our  own,  but  'conse- 
crated ' — that  is,  '  saints.' 

Now  the  next  step  is  purity,  which  is  the  ordinary- 
idea  of  sanctity.  Purity  will  follow  consecration,  and 
would  not  be  worth  much  without  it,  even  if  it  was 
possible  to  be  attained.  Now,  look  what  a  far  deeper 
and  nobler  idea  of  the  service  and  conditions  of  moral 
goodness  this  derivation  of  it  from  surrender  to  God 
gives,  than  does  a  God-ignoring  morality  which  talks 
and  talks  about  acts  and  dispositions,  and  never  goes 
down  to  the  root  of  the  whole  matter ;  and  how  much 
nobler  it  is  than  a  shallow  religion  which  in  like  man- 
ner is  ever  straining  after  acts  of  righteousness,  and 
forgets  that  in  order  to  be  right  there  must  be  prior 
surrender  to  God.  Get  a  man  to  yield  himself  up  to 
God  and  no  fear  about  the  righteousness.  Virtue, 
goodness,  purity,  righteousness,  all  these  synonyms 
express  very  noble  things ;  but  deep  down  below  them 
all  lies  the  New  Testament  idea  of  holiness,  consecration 
of  myself  to  God,  which  is  the  parent  of  them  all. 

And  then  the  next  thing  to  remind  you  of  is  that  this 
consecration  is  to  be  applied  all  through  a  man's 
nature.  Yielding  yourselves  to  God  is  the  talismanic 
secret  of  all  righteousness,  as  I  have  said  ;  and  every 
part  of  our  complex,  manifold  being  is  capable  of  such 
consecration.  I  hallow  my  heart  if  its  love  twines 
round  His  heart.  I  hallow  my  thoughts  if  I  take  His 
truth  for  my  guide,  and  ever  seek  to  be  led  thereby  in 
practice  and  in  belief.  I  hallow  my  will  when  it  bows 
and  says,  '  Speak,  Lord  !  Thy  servant  heareth  ! '  I 
hallow  my  senses  when  I  use  them  as  from  Him,  with 
recognition  of  Him  and  for  Him.    In  fact,  there  are 


12  EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS      [ch.  i. 

two  ways  of  living  in  the  world ;  and,  narrow  as  it 
sounds,  I  venture  to  say  there  are  only  two.  Either 
God  is  my  centre,  and  that  is  holiness ;  or  self  is  my 
centre,  in  more  or  less  subtle  forms,  and  that  is  sin. 

Then  the  next  step  is  that  this  consecration,  which 
will  issue  in  all  purity,  and  will  cover  the  whole  ground 
of  a  human  life,  is  only  possible  when  we  have  drunk 
in  the  blessed  thought  '  beloved  of  God.*  My  yielding 
of  myself  to  Him  can  only  be  the  echo  of  His  giving  of 
Himself  to  me.  He  must  be  the  first  to  love.  You  cannot 
argue  a  man  into  loving  God,  any  more  than  you  can 
hammer  a  rosebud  open.  If  you  do  you  spoil  its  petals. 
But  He  can  love  us  into  loving  Him,  and  the  sunshine, 
falling  on  the  closed  flower,  will  expand  it,  and  it  will 
grow  by  its  reception  of  the  light,  and  grow  sunlike 
in  its  measure  and  according  to  its  nature.  So  a  God 
who  has  only  claims  upon  us  will  never  be  a  God  to 
whom  we  yield  ourselves.  A  God  who  has  love  for  us 
will  be  a  God  to  whom  it  is  blessed  that  we  should  be 
consecrated,  and  so  saints. 

Then,  still  further,  this  consecration,  thus  built  upon 
the  reception  of  the  divine  love,  and  influencing  our 
whole  nature,  and  leading  to  all  purity,  is  a  universal 
characteristic  of  Christians.  There  is  no  faith  which 
does  not  lead  to  surrender.  There  is  no  aristocracy  in 
the  Christian  Church  which  deserves  to  have  the  family 
name  given  especially  to  it.  *  Saint '  this,  and  '  Saint ' 
that,  and  '  Saint '  the  other — these  titles  cannot  be  used 
without  darkening  the  truth  that  this  honour  and 
obligation  of  being  saints  belong  equally  to  all  that 
love  Jesus  Christ.  All  the  men  whom  thus  God  has 
drawn  to  Himself,  by  His  love  in  His  Son,  they  are  all, 
if  I  may  so  say,  objectively  holy  ;  they  belong  to  God. 
But  consecration  may  be  cultivated,  and  must  be  culti- 


V.  7]  PAUL'S  LONGING  13 

vated  and  increased.  There  is  a  solemn  obligation  laid 
upon  every  one  of  us  who  call  ourselves  Christians,  to 
be  saints,  in  the  sense  that  we  have  consciously  yielded 
up  our  whole  lives  to  Him  ;  and  are  trying,  body,  soul, 
and  spirit,  '  to  perfect  holiness  in  the  fear  of  the  Lord.' 
Paul's  letter,  addressed  to  the  *  beloved  in  God,'  the 
*  called  saints '  that  are  in  Rome,  found  its  way  to  the 
people  for  whom  it  was  meant.  If  a  letter  so  addressed 
were  dropped  in  our  streets,  do  you  think  anybody 
would  bring  it  to  you,  or  to  any  Christian  society  as  a 
whole,  recognising  that  we  were  the  people  for  whom 
it  was  meant  ?  The  world  has  taunted  us  often  enough 
with  the  name  of  saints  ;  and  laughed  at  the  profession 
which  they  thought  was  included  in  the  word.  Would 
that  their  taunts  had  been  undeserved,  and  that  it 
were  not  true  that  '  saints '  in  the  Church  sometimes 
means  less  than  '  good  men '  out  of  the  Church !  *  Seeing 
that  we  have  these  promises,  dearly  beloved,  let  us 
cleanse  ourselves  from  all  filthiness  of  flesh  and 
spirit ;  perfecting  holiness  in  the  fear  of  the  Lord.' 


PAUL'S  LONGING* 

*I  long  to  see  yon,  that  I  may  impart  nnto  you  some  spiritaal  gift,  to  the  end  ye 
may  be  established ;  12.  That  is,  that  I  may  be  comforted  together  with  yon,  by 
the  mutual  faith  both  of  you  and  me.'— Romans  i.  11, 12. 

I  AM  not  wont  to  indulge  in  personal  references  in 
the  pulpit,  but  I  cannot  but  yield  to  the  impulse  to 
make  an  exception  now,  and  to  let  our  happy  circum- 
stances mould  my  remarks.  I  speak  mainly  to  mine 
own  people,  and  I  must  trust  that  other  friends  who 
may  hear  or  read  my  words  will  forgive  my  doing  so. 

^  Preached  after  long  absence  on  account  of  illness. 


14  EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS      [ch.i. 

In  taking  such  a  text  as  this,  I  desire  to  shelter  my- 
self behind  Paul,  and  in  expounding  his  feelings  to 
express  my  own,  and  to  draw  such  lessons  as  may  be 
helpful  and  profitable  to  us  all.  And  so  there  are 
three  things  in  this  text  that  I  desire  to  note:  the 
manly  expression  of  Christian  affection ;  the  lofty 
consciousness  of  the  purpose  of  their  meeting ;  and 
the  lowly  sense  that  there  was  much  to  be  received 
as  well  as  much  to  be  given.  A  word  or  two  about 
each  of  these  things  is  all  on  which  I  can  venture. 

I.  First,  then,  notice  the  manly  expression  of 
Christian  affection  which  the  Apostle  allows  himself 
here. 

Very  few  Christian  teachers  could  or  should  venture 
to  talk  so  much  about  themselves  as  Paul  did.  The 
strong  infusion  of  the  personal  element  in  all  his 
letters  is  so  transparently  simple,  so  obviously  sincere, 
so  free  from  any  jarring  note  of  affectation  or  unc- 
tuous sentiment  that  it  attracts  rather  than  repels. 
If  I  might  venture  upon  a  paradox,  his  personal 
references  are  instances  of  self-oblivion  in  the  midst 
of  self-consciousness. 

He  had  never  been  in  Borne  when  he  wrote  these 
words ;  he  had  no  personal  relations  with  the  be- 
lievers there;  he  had  never  looked  them  in  the 
face ;  there  were  no  sympathy  and  confidence  between 
them,  as  the  growth  of  years.  But  still  his  heart  went 
out  towards  them,  and  he  was  not  ashamed  to  show 
it.  '  I  long  to  see  you,' — in  the  original  the  word 
expresses  a  very  intense  amount  of  yearning  blended 
with  something  of  regret  that  he  had  been  so  long 
kept  from  them. 

Now  it  is  not  a  good  thing  for  people  to  make  many 
professions  of  affection,  and  I  think  a  public  teacher 


vs.  11. 12]  PAUL'S  LONGING  15 

has  something  better  to  do  than  to  parade  such  feel- 
ings before  his  audiences.  But  there  are  exceptions 
to  all  rules,  and  I  suppose  I  may  venture  to  let  my 
heart  speak,  and  to  say  how  gladly  I  come  back  to 
the  old  place,  dear  to  me  by  so  many  sacred  memories 
and  associations,  and  how  gladly  I  reknit  the  bonds 
of  an  affection  which  has  been  unbroken,  and  deepen- 
ing on  both  sides  through  thirty  long  years. 

Dear  friends!  let  us  together  thank  God  to-day  if 
He  has  knit  our  hearts  together  in  mutual  affection ; 
and  if  you  and  I  can  look  each  other,  as  I  believe 
we  can,  in  the  eyes,  with  the  assurance  that  I  see  only 
the  faces  of  friends,  and  that  you  see  the  face  of  one 
who  gladly  resumes  the  old  work  and  associations. 

But  now,  dear  brethren,  let  us  draw  one  lesson. 
Unless  there  be  this  manly,  honest,  though  oftenest 
silent,  Christian  affection,  the  sooner  you  and  I  part 
the  better.  Unless  it  be  in  my  heart  I  can  do  you  no 
good.  No  man  ever  touched  another  with  the  sweet 
constraining  forces  that  lie  in  Christ's  Gospel  unless 
the  heart  of  the  speaker  went  out  to  grapple  the  hearts 
of  the  hearers.  And  no  audience  ever  listen  with  any 
profit  to  a  man  when  they  come  in  the  spirit  of 
carping  criticism,  or  of  cold  admiration,  or  of  stolid 
indifference.  There  must  be  for  this  simple  relation- 
ship which  alone  binds  a  Nonconformist  preacher  to 
his  congregation,  as  a  sine  qua  non  of  all  higher  things 
and  of  all  spiritual  good,  a  real,  though  oftenest  it  be 
a  concealed,  mutual  affection  and  regard.  We  have 
to  thank  God  for  much  of  it ;  let  us  try  to  get  more. 
That  is  all  I  want  to  say  about  the  first  point 
here. 

II.  Note  the  lofty  consciousness  of  the  purpose  of 
their  meeting. 


16  EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS      [ch.  i. 

•I  long  to  see  you,  that  I  may  impart  unto  you 
some  spiritual  gift.'  Paul  knew  that  he  had  some- 
thing which  he  could  give  to  these  people,  and  he  calls 
it  by  a  very  comprehensive  term,  *  some  spiritual  gift ' — 
a  gift  of  some  sort  which,  coming  from  the  Divine 
Spirit,  was  to  be  received  into  the  human  spirit. 

Now  that  expression — a  spiritual  gift — in  the  New 
Testament  has  a  variety  of  applications.  Sometimes 
it  refers  to  what  we  call  miraculous  endowments, 
sometimes  it  refers  to  what  we  may  call  official 
capacity ;  but  here  it  is  evidently  neither  the  one  nor 
the  other  of  these  more  limited  and  special  things, 
but  the  general  idea  of  a  divine  operation  upon  the 
human  spirit  which  fills  it  with  Christian  graces — 
knowledge,  faith,  love.  Or,  in  simpler  words,  what 
Paul  wanted  to  give  them  was  a  firmer  grasp  and 
fuller  possession  of  Jesus  Christ,  His  love  and  power, 
which  would  secure  a  deepening  and  strengthening  of 
their  whole  Christian  life.  He  was  quite  sure  he  had 
this  to  give,  and  that  he  could  impart  it,  if  they  would 
listen  to  what  he  would  say  to  them.  But  whilst  thus 
he  rises  into  the  lofty  conception  of  the  purpose  and 
possible  result  of  his  meeting  the  Roman  Christians, 
he  is  just  as  conscious  of  the  limitations  of  his  power 
in  the  matter  as  he  is  of  the  greatness  of  his  function. 
These  are  indicated  plainly.  The  word  which  he 
employs  here,  *  gift,'  is  never  used  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment for  a  thing  that  one  man  can  give  to  another, 
but  is  always  employed  for  the  concrete  results  of  the 
grace  of  God  bestowed  upon  men.  The  very  expression, 
then,  shows  that  Paul  thought  of  himself,  not  as  the 
original  giver,  but  simply  as  a  channel  through  which 
was  communicated  what  God  had  given.  In  the  same 
direction  points  the  adjective  which  accompanies  the 


vs.  11, 12]     BOND  OF  THE  MINISTRY  17 

noun — a  '  spiritual  gift ' — which  probably  describes  the 
origin  of  the  gift  as  being  the  Spirit  of  God,  rather 
than  defines  the  seat  of  it  when  received  as  being  the 
spirit  of  the  receiver.  Notice,  too,  as  bearing  on  the 
limits  of  Paul's  part  in  the  gift,  the  propriety  and 
delicacy  of  the  language  in  his  statement  of  the 
ultimate  purpose  of  the  gift.  He  does  not  say  '  that 
I  may  strengthen  you,'  which  might  have  sounded 
too  egotistical,  and  would  have  assumed  too  much  to 
himself,  but  he  says  'that  ye  may  be  strengthened,' 
for  the  true  strengthener  is  not  Paul,  but  the  Spirit  of 
God. 

So,  on  the  one  hand,  the  Christian  teacher  is  bound 
to  rise  to  the  height  of  the  consciousness  of  his  lofty 
vocation  as  having  in  possession  a  gift  that  he  can 
bestow;  on  the  other  hand,  he  is  bound  ever  to 
remember  the  limitations  within  which  that  is  true — 
viz.  that  the  gift  is  not  his,  but  God's,  and  that  the 
Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  the  true  Giver  of  all  the  graces 
which  may  blossom  when  His  word,  ministered  by 
human  agents,  is  received  into  human  hearts. 

And,  now,  what  are  the  lessons  that  I  take  from  this  ? 
Two  very  simple  ones.  First,  no  Christian  teacher  has 
any  business  to  open  his  mouth,  unless  he  is  sure  that 
he  has  received  something  to  impart  to  men  as  a  gift 
from  the  Divine  Spirit.  To  preach  our  doubts,  to  preach 
our  own  opinions,  to  preach  poor  platitudes,  to  talk 
about  politics  and  morals  and  taste  and  literature  and 
the  like  in  the  pulpit,  is  profanation  and  blasphemy. 
Let  no  man  open  his  lips  unless  he  can  say :  '  The  Lord 
hath  showed  me  this ;  and  this  I  bring  to  you  as  His 
word.'  Nor  has  a  Christian  organisation  any  right 
to  exist,  unless  it  recognises  the  communication  and 
reception  and  further  spreading  of  this  spiritual  gift 

B 


18  EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS      [ch.  i. 

as  its  great  function.  Churclios  whicli  have  lost  that 
consciousness,  and,  instead  of  a  divine  gift,  have  little 
more  to  offer  than  formal  worship,  or  music,  or 
entertainments,  or  mere  intellectual  discourse,  whether 
orthodox  or  '  advanced,'  have  no  right  to  be  ;  and  by 
the  law  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest  will  not  long 
be.  The  one  thing  that  warrants  such  a  relationship 
as  subsists  between  you  and  me  is  this,  my  conscious- 
ness that  I  have  a  message  from  God,  and  your  belief 
that  you  hear  such  from  my  lips.  Unless  that  be  our 
bond  the  sooner  these  walls  crumble,  and  this  voice 
ceases,  and  these  pews  are  emptied,  the  better.  'I 
have,'  says,  Paul,  'a  gift  to  impart;  and  I  long  to 
see  you  that  I  may  impart  it  to  you.'  Oh  !  for  more, 
in  all  our  pulpits,  of  that  burdened  consciousness  of  a 
divine  message  which  needs  the  relief  of  speech,  and 
longs  with  a  longing  caught  from  Christ  to  impart  its 
richest  treasures. 

That  is  the  one  lesson.  And  the  other  one  is  this. 
Have  you,  dear  friends,  received  the  gift  that  I  have, 
under  the  limitations  already  spoken  of,  to  bestow? 
There  are  some  of  you  who  have  listened  to  my  voice 
ever  since  you  were  children — some  of  you,  though 
not  many,  have  heard  it  for  well  on  to  thirty  years. 
Have  you  taken  the  thing  that  all  these  years  I  have 
been — God  knows  how  poorly,  but  God  knows  how 
honestly — trying  to  bring  to  you  ?  That  is,  have  you 
taken  Christ,  and  have  you  faith  in  Him?  And,  as 
for  those  of  you  who  say  that  you  are  Christians,  many 
blessings  have  passed  between  you  and  me  through 
all  these  years ;  but,  dear  friends,  has  the  chief  blessing 
been  attained?  Are  you  being  strengthened  day  by 
day  for  the  burdens  and  the  annoyances  and  the 
sorrows  of  life  by  your  coming  here?     Do  I  do  you 


vs.  11, 12]     BOND  OF  THE  MINISTRY  19 

any  good  in  that  way;  are  you  better  men  than  when 
we  first  met  together?  Is  Christ  dearer,  and  more 
real  and  nearer  to  you ;  and  are  your  lives  more  trans- 
parently consecrated,  more  manifestly  the  result  of  a 
hidden  union  with  Him  ?  Do  you  walk  in  the  world 
like  the  Master,  because  you  are  members  of  this 
congregation?  If  so,  its  purpose  has  been  accom- 
plished.   If  not,  it  has  miserably  failed. 

I  have  said  that  I  have  to  thank  God  for  the  un- 
broken affection  that  has  knit  us  together.  But  what 
is  the  use  of  such  love  if  it  does  not  lead  onwards  to 
this  ?  I  have  had  enough,  and  more  than  enough,  of 
what  you  call  popularity  and  appreciation,  undeserved 
enough,  but  rendered  unstintedly  by  you.  I  do  not 
care  the  snap  of  a  finger  for  it  by  comparison  with 
this  other  thing.  And  oh,  dear  brethren !  if  all  that 
comes  of  our  meeting  here  Sunday  after  Sunday  is 
either  praise  or  criticism  of  my  poor  words  and 
ways,  our  relationship  is  a  curse,  and  not  a  blessing, 
and  we  come  together  for  the  worse  and  not  for  the 
better.  The  purpose  of  the  Church,  and  the  purpose 
of  the  ministry,  and  the  meaning  of  our  assembling 
are,  that  spiritual  gifts  may  be  imparted,  not  by  me 
alone,  but  by  you,  too,  and  by  me  in  my  place  and 
measure,  and  if  that  purpose  be  not  accomplished, 
all  other  purposes,  that  are  accomplished,  are  of  no 
account,  and  worse  than  nothing. 

III.  And  now,  lastly,  note  the  lowly  consciousness 
that  much  was  to  be  received  as  well  as  much  to 
be  given. 

The  Apostle  corrects  himself  after  he  has  said  •  that 
I  may  impart  unto  you  some  spiritual  gift,'  by  adding, 
'that  is,  that  I  may  be  comforted  (or  rather,  en- 
couraged) together  with  you  by  the  mutual  faith  both 


20  EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS      [ch.i. 

of  you  and  me.'  If  his  language  were  not  so  trans- 
parently sincere,  and  springing  from  deep  interest  in 
the  relationship  between  himself  and  these  people,  we 
should  say  that  it  was  exquisite  courtesy  and  beautiful 
delicacy.  But  it  moves  in  a  region  far  more  real  than 
the  region  of  courtesy,  and  it  speaks  the  inmost  truth 
about  the  conditions  on  which  the  Roman  Christians 
should  receive — viz.  that  they  should  also  give.  There 
is  only  one  Giver  who  is  only  a  Giver,  and  that  is 
God,  All  other  givers  are  also  receivers.  Paul  desired 
to  see  his  Roman  brethren  that  he  might  be  en- 
couraged ;  and  when  he  did  see  them,  as  he  marched 
along  the  Appian  Way,  a  shipwrecked  prisoner,  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles  tells  us,  *He  thanked  God  and 
took  courage.'  The  sight  of  them  strengthened  him 
and  prepared  him  for  what  lay  before  him. 

Paul's  was  a  richly  complicated  nature — firm  as  a 
rock  in  its  will,  tremulously  sensitive  in  its  sym- 
pathies ;  like  some  strongly-rooted  tree  with  its  stable 
stem  and  a  green  cloud  of  fluttering  foliage  that 
moves  in  the  lightest  air.  So  his  spirit  rose  and  fell 
according  to  the  reception  that  he  met  from  his 
brethren,  and  the  manifestation  of  their  faith  quick- 
ened and  strengthened  his. 

And  he  is  but  one  instance  of  a  universal  law.  All 
teachers,  the  more  genuine  they  are,  the  more  sympa- 
thetic they  are,  are  the  more  sensitive  of  their  environ- 
ment. The  very  oratorical  temperatnent  places  a 
man  at  the  mercy  of  surroundings.  All  earnest  work 
has  ever  travelling  with  it  as  its  shadow  seasons  of 
deep  depression ;  and  the  Christian  teacher  does  not 
escape  these.  I  am  not  going  to  speak  about  myself, 
but  this  is  unquestionably  true,  that  every  Elijah,  after 
the  mightiest  effort  of  prophecy,  is  apt  to  cover  his 


vs.  11,12]     BOND  OF  THE  MINISTRY  21 

head  in  his  mantle  and  to  say,  *  Take  me  away ;  I  am 
not  better  than  my  fathers.'  And  when  a  man  for  thirty 
years,  amidst  all  the  changes  incident  to  a  great  city 
congregation  in  that  time,  has  to  stand  up  Sunday  after 
Sunday  before  the  same  people,  and  mark  how  some 
of  them  are  stolidly  indifferent,  and  note  how  others 
are  dropping  away  from  their  faithfulness,  and  see 
empty  places  where  loving  forms  used  to  sit — no 
wonder  that  the  mood  comes  ever  and  anon,  'Then, 
said  I,  surely  I  have  laboured  in  vain  and  spent  my 
strength  for  nought.'  The  hearer  reacts  on  the  speaker 
quite  as  much  as  the  speaker  does  on  the  hearer.  If 
you  have  ice  in  the  pews,  that  brings  down  the  tem- 
perature up  here.  It  is  hard  to  be  fervid  amidst 
people  that  are  all  but  dead.  It  is  difficult  to  keep 
a  fire  alight  when  it  is  kindled  on  the  top  of  an  ice- 
berg. And  the  unbelief  and  low-toned  religion  of  a 
congregation  are  always  pulling  down  the  faith  and  the 
fervour  of  their  minister,  if  he  be  better  and  holier, 
as  they  expect  him  to  be,  than  they  are. 

'  He  did  not  many  works  because  of  their  unbelief.' 
Christ  knew  the  hampering  and  the  restrictions  of 
His  power  which  came  from  being  surrounded  by  a 
chill,  unsympathetic  environment.  My  strength  and 
my  weakness  are  largely  due  to  you.  And  if  you 
want  your  minister  to  preach  better,  and  in  all  ways 
to  do  his  work  more  joyfully  and  faithfully,  the  means 
lie  largely  in  your  own  hands.  Icy  indifference,  ill- 
natured  interpretations,  carping  criticisms,  swift  for- 
getfulness  of  one's  words,  all  these  things  kill  the 
fervour  of  the  pulpit. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  true  encouragement  to  give 
a  man  when  he  is  trying  to  do  God's  will,  to  preach 
Christ's  Gospel,  is  not  to  pat  him  on  the  back  and  say, 


22  EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS      [ch.i. 

'  What  a  remarkable  sermon  that  was  of  yours !  what 
a  genius !  what  an  orator ! '  not  to  go  about  praising 
it,  but  to  come  and  say,  'Thy  words  have  led  me  to 
Christ,  and  from  thee  I  have  taken  the  gift  of 
gifts.' 

Dear  brethren,  the  encouragement  of  the  minister  is 
in  the  conversion  and  the  growth  of  the  hearers.  And 
I  pray  that  in  this  new  lease  of  united  fellowship 
which  we  have  taken  out,  be  it  longer  or  shorter — 
and  advancing  years  tell  me  that  at  the  longest  it 
must  be  comparatively  short — I  may  come  to  you  ever 
more  and  more  with  the  lofty  and  humbling  con- 
sciousness that  I  have  a  message  which  Christ  has 
given  to  me,  and  that  you  may  come  more  and  more 
receptive — not  of  rny  words,  God  forbid — but  of  Christ's 
truth ;  and  that  so  we  may  be  helpers  one  of  another, 
and  encourage  each  other  in  the  warfare  and  work  to 
which  we  all  are  called  and  consecrated. 


DEBTORS  TO  ALL  MEN 

'  I  am  a  debtor  both  to  the  Greeks  and  to  the  Barbarians,  both  to  the  wise  and 
to  the  unwise.'— Romans  i.  14. 

No  doubt  Paul  is  here  referring  to  the  special  obliga- 
tion laid  upon  him  by  his  divine  call  to  be  the  Apostle 
to  the  Gentiles.  He  was  entrusted  with  the  Gospel  as 
a  steward,  and  was  therefore  bound  to  carry  it  to  all 
sorts  and  conditions  of  men.  But  the  principle  under- 
lying the  statement  applies  to  all  Christians.  The 
indebtedness  referred  to  is  no  peculiarity  of  the  Apos- 
tolic order,  but  attaches  to  every  believer.  Every 
servant  of  Jesus  Christ,  who  has  received  the  truth 


v.u]  DEBTORS  TO  ALL  MEN  23 

for  himself,  has  received  it  as  a  steward,  and  is,  as  such, 
indebted  to  God,  from  whom  he  got  the  trust,  and  to 
the  men  for  whom  he  got  it.  The  only  limit  to  the 
obligation  is,  as  Paul  says  in  the  context,  *  as  much  as 
in  me  is.'  Capacity,  determined  by  faculties,  oppor- 
tunities, and  circumstances,  prescribes  the  kind  and  the 
degree  of  the  work  to  be  done  in  discharge  of  the  obliga- 
tion ;  but  the  obligation  is  universal.  We  are  not  at 
liberty  to  choose  whether  we  shall  do  our  part  in 
spreading  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ.  It  is  a  debt  that 
we  owe  to  God  and  to  men.  Is  that  the  view  of  duty 
which  the  average  Christian  man  takes  ?  I  am  afraid 
it  is  not.  If  it  were,  our  treasuries  would  be  full,  and 
great  would  be  the  multitude  of  them  that  preached 
the  Word. 

It  is  no  very  exalted  degree  of  virtue  to  pay  our 
debts.  We  do  not  expect  to  be  praised  for  that ;  and 
we  do  not  consider  that  we  are  at  liberty  to  choose 
whether  we  shall  do  it  or  not.  We  are  dishonest  if  we 
do  not.  It  is  no  merit  in  us  to  be  honest.  Would  that 
all  Christian  people  applied  that  principle  to  their 
religion.  The  world  would  be  different,  and  the  Church 
would  be  different,  if  they  did. 

Let  me  try,  then,  to  enforce  this  thought  of  indebted- 
ness and  of  common  honesty  in  discharging  the  indebt- 
edness, which  underlies  these  words.  Paul  thought  that 
he  went  a  long  way  to  pay  his  debts  to  humanity  by 
carrying  to  everybody  whom  he  could  reach  the  '  Name 
that  is  above  every  name.' 

I.  Now,  first,  let  me  say  that  we  Christians  are 
debtors  to  all  men  by  our  common  manhood. 

It  is  not  the  least  of  the  gifts  which  Christianity  has 
brought  to  the  world,  that  it  has  introduced  the  new 
thought  of  the  brotherhood  of  mankind.    The  very 


24  EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS      [ch.  i. 

word  •humanity'  is  a  Christian  coinage,  and  it  was 
coined  to  express  the  new  thought  that  began  to  throb 
in  men's  hearts,  as  soon  as  they  accepted  the  message 
that  Jesus  Christ  came  to  give,  the  message  of  the 
Fatherhood  of  God.  For  it  is  on  that  belief  of  God's 
Fatherhood  that  the  belief  of  man's  brotherhood  rests, 
and  on  it  alone  can  it  be  secured  and  permanently 
based. 

Here  is  a  Jew  writing  to  Latins  in  the  Greek  language. 
The  phenomenon  itself  is  a  sign  of  a  new  order  of  things, 
of  the  rising  of  a  flood  that  had  surged  over,  and  in 
the  course  of  ages  would  sap  away  and  dissolve,  the 
barriers  between  men.  The  Apostle  points  to  two  of 
the  widest  gulfs  that  separated  men,  in  the  words  of 
my  text.  '  Greeks  and  Barbarians '  divides  mankind, 
according  to  race  and  language.  'Wise  and  unwise' 
divides  them  according  to  culture  and  intellectual  capa- 
city. Both  gulfs  exist  still,  though  they  have  been 
wonderfully  filled  up  by  the  influence,  direct  and  in- 
direct, of  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ.  The  fiercest 
antagonisms  of  race  which  still  subsist  are  felt  to 
belong  to  a  decaying  order,  and  to  be  sure,  sooner  or 
later,  to  pass  away.  I  suppose  that  the  gulf  made  by 
the  increased  culture  of  modern  society  between  civil- 
ised and  the  savage  peoples,  and,  within  the  limits  of 
our  own  land,  the  gulf  made  by  education  between  the 
higher  and  the  lower  layers  of  our  community— I 
speak  not  of  higher  and  lower  in  regard  to  wealth  or 
station,  but  in  regard  to  intellectual  acquirement  and 
capacity — are  greater  than,  perhaps,  they  ever  were  in 
the  past.  But  yet  over  the  gulf  a  bridge  is  thrown, 
and  the  gulf  itself  is  being  filled  up.  High  above  all 
the  superficial  distinctions  which  separate  Jew  and 
Gentile,  Greek  and  Barbarian,  educated  and  illiterate. 


V.  U]  DEBTORS  TO  ALL  MEN  25 

scientific  and  unscientific,  wise  and  unwise,  there 
stretches  the  great  rainbow  of  the  truth  that  all  are 
one  in  Christ  Jesus.  Fraternity  without  Fatherhood 
is  a  ghastly  mockery  that  ended  a  hundred  years  ago 
in  the  guillotine,  and  to-day  will  end  in  disappointment ; 
and  it  is  little  more  than  cant.  But  when  Christianity 
comes  and  tells  us  that  we  have  one  Father  and  one 
Redeemer,  then  the  unity  of  the  race  is  secured. 

And  that  oneness  which  makes  us  debtors  to  all  men 
is  shown  to  be  real  by  the  fact  that,  beneath  all  super- 
ficial distinctions  of  culture,  race,  age,  or  station,  there 
are  the  primal  necessities  and  yearnings  and  possi- 
bilities that  lie  in  every  human  soul.  All  men,  savage 
or  cultivated,  breathe  the  same  air,  see  by  the  same 
light,  are  fed  by  the  same  food  and  drink,  have  the 
same  yearning  hearts,  the  same  lofty  aspirations  that 
unfulfilled  are  torture ;  the  same  experience  of  the 
same  guilt,  and,  blessed  be  God !  the  same  Saviour  and 
the  same  salvation. 

Because,  then,  we  are  all  members  of  the  one  family, 
every  man  is  bound  to  regard  all  that  he  possesses, 
and  is,  and  can  do,  as  committed  to  him  in  stewardship 
to  be  imparted  to  his  fellows.  We  are  not  sponges  to 
absorb,  but  we  are  pipes  placed  in  the  spring,  that  we 
may  give  forth  the  precious  water  of  life. 

Cain  is  not  a  very  good  model,  but  his  question  is 
the  world's  question,  and  it  implies  the  expectation  of 
a  negative  answer — *Am  I  my  brother's  keeper?' 
Surely,  the  very  language  answers  itself,  and,  although 
Cain  thinks  that  the  only  answer  is  '  No,'  wisdom  sees 
that  the  only  answer  is  '  Yes.'  For  if  I  am  my  brother's 
brother,  then  surely  I  am  my  brother's  keeper.  We 
have  a  better  example.  There  is  another  Elder  Brother 
who  has  come  to  give  to  His  brethren  all  that  Himself 


26  EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS      [ch.i. 

possessed,  and  we  but  poorly  follow  our  Master's  pattern 
unless  we  feel  that  the  mystic  tie  which  binds  us  in 
brotherhood  to  every  man  makes  us  every  man's  debtor 
to  the  extent  of  our  possessions.  That  is  the  Christian 
truth  that  underlies  the  modern  Socialistic  idea,  and, 
whatever  the  form  in  which  it  is  ultimately  brought 
into  practice  as  the  rule  of  mankind,  the  principle  will 
triumph  one  day  ;  and  we  are  bound,  as  Christian  men, 
to  hasten  the  coming  of  its  victory.  We  are  debtors 
by  reason  of  our  common  humanity. 

II.  We  are  debtors  by  our  possession  of  the  universal 
salvation. 

The  principle  which  I  have  already  been  laying  down 
applies  all  round,  to  everything  that  we  have,  are,  or 
can  do.  But  its  most  stringent  obligation,  and  the 
noblest  field  for  its  operations,  are  found  in  reference 
to  the  Christian  man's  possession  of  the  Gospel  for  the 
joy  of  his  own  heart,  and  to  the  duties  that  are  therein 
involved.  Christ  draws  men  to  Himself  for  their  own 
sakes,  blessed  be  His  name !  but  not  for  their  own  sakes 
only.  He  draws  them  to  Himself,  that  they,  in  their 
turn,  may  draw  others  with  whose  hands  theirs  are 
linked,  and  so  may  swell  the  numbers  of  the  flock  that 
gathers  round  the  one  Shepherd.  He  puts  the  dew  of 
His  blessing  into  the  chalice  of  the  tiniest  flower,  that 
it  may  '  share  its  dewdrop  with  another  near.'  Just  as 
every  particle  of  inert  dough  as  it  is  leavened  becomes 
in  its  turn  leaven,  and  the  medium  for  leavening  the 
particle  contiguous  to  it,  so  every  Christian  is  bound, 
or,  to  use  the  metaphor  of  my  text,  is  a  debtor  to  God 
and  man,  to  impart  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ.  '  Greek 
and  Barbarian,'  says  Paul,  'wise  or  unwise';  all  dis- 
tinctions vanish.  If  I  can  get  at  a  man,  no  matter  what 
colour,  his  race,  his  language,  his  capacity,  his  acquire- 


V.  14]  DEBTORS  TO  ALL  MEN  27 

ments,  he  is  my  creditor,  and  I  ara  defrauding  him  of 
what  he  has  a  right  to  expect  from  me  if  I  do  not  do 
my  best  to  bring  him  to  Jesus  Christ. 

This  obligation  receives  additional  weight  from  the 
proved  adaptation  of  the  Gospel  to  all  sorts  and  condi- 
tions of  men.  Alone  of  all  religirms  has  Christianity 
l)roved  itself  capable  of  dominating  every  type  of  char- 
acter, of  influencing  every  stage  of  civilisation,  of  as- 
suming the  speech  of  every  tongue,  and  of  wearing  the 
garb  of  every  race.  There  are  other  religions  which 
are  evidently  destined  only  to  a  narrow  field  of  opera- 
tions, and  are  rigidly  limited  by  geographical  conditions, 
or  by  stages  of  civilisation.  There  are  wines  that  are 
ruined  by  a  sea  voyage,  and  can  only  be  drunk  in  the 
land  where  the  vintage  was  gathered ;  and  that  is  the 
condition  of  all  the  ethnic  religions.  Christianity  alone 
passes  through  the  whole  earth,  and  influences  all  men. 
The  history  of  missions  shows  us  that.  There  has  yet 
to  be  found  the  race  that  is  incapable  of  receiving,  or  is 
beyond  the  need  of  possessing,  or  cannot  be  elevated 
by  the  operation  of,  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ. 

So  to  all  men  we  are  bound,  as  much  as  in  us  is,  to 
carry  the  Gospel.  The  distinction  that  is  drawn  so  often 
by  the  people  who  never  move  a  finger  to  help  the 
heathen  either  at  home  or  abroad,  between  the  home 
and  the  foreign  field  of  work,  vanishes  altogether  when 
we  stand  at  the  true  Christian  standpoint.  Here  is  a 
man  who  wants  the  Gospel ;  I  have  it ;  I  can  give  it  to 
him.  That  constitutes  a  summons  as  imperative  as  if 
we  were  called  by  name  from  Heaven,  and  bade  to  go, 
and  as  much  as  in  us  is  to  preach  the  Gospel.  Brethren ! 
we  do  not  obey  the  command,  '  Owe  no  man  anything,' 
unless,  to  the  extent  of  our  ability,  or  over  the  whole 
field  which  we  can  influence  at  home  or  abroad,  we 


28  EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS      [ch.  i. 

seek  to  spread  the  name  of  Christ  and  the  salvation 
that  is  in  Him. 

III.  We  are  debtors  by  benefits  received. 

I  am  speaking  to  men  and  women  a  very  large  pro- 
portion of  whom  get  their  living,  and  some  of  whom 
amass  their  wealth,  by  trade  with  lands  that  need  the 
Gospel.  It  is  not  for  nothing  that  England  has  won 
the  great  empire  that  she  possesses — won  it,  alas !  far 
too  often  by  deeds  that  will  not  bear  investigation  in 
the  light  of  Christian  principle,  but  won  it. 

What  do  we  owe  to  the  lands  that  we  call  *  heathen '  ? 
The  very  speech  by  which  we  communicate  with  one 
another ;  the  beginning  of  our  civilisation ;  wide  fields 
for  expanding  population  and  emigration  ;  treasures  of 
wisdom  of  many  kinds ;  an  empire  about  which  we  are 
too  fond  of  crowing  and  too  reluctant  to  recognise  its 
responsibilities — and  Manchester  its  commerce  and  pro- 
sperity !  Did  God  put  us  where  we  are  as  a  nation 
only  in  order  that  we  might  carry  the  gifts  of  our 
literature,  great  as  that  is;  of  our  science,  great  as 
that  is ;  of  our  law,  blessed  as  that  is ;  of  our  manu- 
factures, to  those  distant  lands  ?  The  best  thing  that 
we  can  give  is  the  thing  that  all  of  us  can  help  to  give 
— the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ.  *  Who  knoweth  whether 
thou  art  come  to  the  kingdom  for  such  a  time  as  this?' 

IV.  Lastly,  we  are  debtors  by  injuries  inflicted. 

Many  subject-races  seem  destined  to  fade  away  by 
contact  with  our  race  ;  and  if  we  think  of  the  nameless 
cruelties,  and  the  iliad  of  woes  which  England's  posses- 
sion of  this  great  Colonial  Empire  has  had  accompany- 
ing it,  we  may  feel  that  the  harm  in  many  aspects 
outweighs  the  good,  and  that  it  had  been  better  for 
these  men  to  be  left  suckled  in  creeds  outworn,  and 
ignorant  of  our  civilisation,  than  to  receive  from  us  the 


V.  14]  DEBTORS  TO  ALL  MEN  29 

fatal  gifts  that  they  often  have  received.  I  do  not  wish 
to  exaggerate,  but  if  you  will  take  the  facts  of  the  case 
as  brought  out  by  people  that  have  no  Christian  pre- 
judices to  serve,  I  think  you  will  acknowledge  that  we 
as  a  nation  owe  a  debt  of  reparation  to  the  barbarians 
and  the  unwise. 

What  about  killing  African  tribes  by  the  thousand 
with  the  vile  stuff  that  we  call  rum,  and  send  to  them 
in  exchange  for  their  poor  commodities  ?  What  about 
introducing  new  diseases,  the  offspring  of  vice,  into  the 
South  Sea  Islands,  decimating  and  all  but  destroying 
the  population?  Is  it  not  true  that,  as  the  prophet 
wailed  of  old  about  a  degenerate  Israel,  we  may  wail 
about  the  beach-combers  and  other  loafers  that  go 
amongst  savage  lands  from  England — 'Through  you 
the  name  of  God  is  blasphemed  among  the  Gentiles.' 
A  Hindoo  once  said  to  a  missionary, '  Your  Book  is  very 
good.  If  you  were  as  good  as  your  Book  you  would 
conquer  India  in  five  years.'  That  may  be  true  or  it 
may  not,  but  it  gives  us  the  impression  that  is  produced 
by  godless  Englishmen  on  heathen  peoples.  We  are 
taking  away  their  religion  from  them,  necessarily,  as  the 
result  of  education  and  contact  with  European  thought. 
And  if  we  do  not  substitute  for  it  the  one  faith  that 
elevates  and  saves,  the  last  state  of  that  man  will  be 
worse  than  the  first. 

We  can  almost  hear  the  rattle  of  tlji>  guns  on  the 
north-west  frontier  of  India  to-day.  There  is  another 
specimen  of  the  injuries  inflicted.  This  is  not  the  place 
to  talk  politics,  but  I  feel  that  this  is  the  place  to  ask 
this  question,  'Are  Christian  principles  to  have  any- 
thing to  do  in  determining  national  actions  ? '  Is  it 
Christian  to  impose  our  yoke  on  unwilling  tribes  who 
have  as  deep  a  love  for  independence  as  the  proudest 


30  EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS      [ch.  i. 

Englislamen  of  us  all,  and  as  good  a  right  to  it  ?  Are 
punitive  expeditions  and  Maxim  guns  instalments  of 
our  debt  to  all  men  ?  I  wonder  what  Jesus  Christ,  who 
died  for  Afridis  and  Orakzais  and  all  the  rest  of  them, 
thinks  about  such  conduct  ? 

Brethren,  we  are  debtors  to  all  men.  Let  us  do  our 
best  to  influence  national  action  in  accordance  with  the 
brotherhood  which  has  been  revealed  to  us  by  the 
Elder  Brother  of  us  all ;  and  let  us,  at  least  for  our  own 
parts,  recognise,  and,  as  much  as  in  us  is,  discharge  the 
debt  which,  by  our  common  humanity,  and  by  our 
possession  of  the  universal  Gospel  we  owe  to  all  men, 
and  which  is  made  more  weighty  by  the  benefits  we 
receive  from  many,  and  by  the  injuries  which  England 
has  inflicted  on  not  a  few.  Else  shall  we  hear  rise 
above  all  the  voices  that  palliate  crime,  on  the  plea  of 
'  State  necessity,'  the  stern  words  of  the  Master,  '  In  thy 
skirts  is  found  the  blood  of  the  souls  of  poor  innocents.' 
We  are  debtors ;  let  us  pay  our  debts. 


THE  GOSPEL  THE  POWER  OF  GOD^ 

'  I  am  not  ashamed  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ :  for  it  is  the  power  of  God  unto 
salvation  to  every  one  that  believeth.'— Romans  i.  16. 

To  preach  the  Gospel  in  Rome  had  long  been  the  goal 
of  Paul's  hopes.  He  wished  to  do  in  the  centre  of 
power  what  he  had  done  in  Athens,  the  home  of 
wisdom ;  and  with  superb  confidence,  not  in  himself, 
but  in  his  message,  to  try  conclusions  with  the 
strongest  thing  in  the  world.  He  knew  its  power 
well,  and  was  not  appalled.  The  danger  was  an  attrac- 
tion to  his  chivalrous  spirit.     He  believed  in  flying  at 

1  Preached  before  Baptist  Union, 


V.16]  THE  GOSPEL  THE  POWER  OF  GOD  31 

the  head  when  you  are  fighting  with  a  serpent,  and 
he  knew  that  influence  exerted  in  Rome  would  thrill 
through  the  Empire.  If  we  would  understand  the 
magnificent  audacity  of  these  words  of  my  text  we 
must  try  to  listen  to  them  with  the  ears  of  a  Roman. 
Here  was  a  poor  little  insignificant  Jew,  like  hundreds 
of  his  countrymen  down  in  the  Ghetto,  one  who  had 
his  head  full  of  some  fantastic  nonsense  about  a  young 
visionary  whom  the  procurator  of  Syria  had  very 
wisely  put  an  end  to  a  while  ago  in  order  to  quiet 
down  the  turbulent  province ;  and  he  was  going  into 
Rome  with  the  notion  that  his  word  would  shake  the 
throne  of  the  Caesars.  What  proud  contempt  would 
have  curled  their  lips  if  they  had  been  told  that  the 
travel  -  stained  prisoner,  trudging  wearily  up  the 
Appian  Way,  had  the  mightiest  thing  in  the  world 
entrusted  to  his  care !  Romans  did  not  believe  much 
in  ideas.  Iheir  notion  of  power  was  sharp  swords  and 
iron  yokes  on  the  necks  of  subject  peoples.  But  the 
history  of  Christianity,  whatever  else  it  has  been,  has 
been  the  history  of  the  supremacy  and  the  revolutionary 
force  of  ideas.  Thought  is  mightier  than  all  visible 
forces.  Thought  dissolves  and  reconstructs.  Empires 
and  institutions  melt  before  it  like  the  carbon  rods  in 
an  electric  lamp;  and  the  little  hillock  of  Calvary  is 
higher  than  the  Palatine  with  its  regal  homes  and  the 
Capitoline  with  its  temples :  '  I  am  not  ashamed  of  the 
Gospel  of  Christ,  for  it  is  the  power  of  God  unto  salva- 
tion.' 

Now,  dear  friends,  I  have  ventured  to  take  these 
great  words  for  my  text,  though  I  know,  better  than 
any  of  you  can  tell  me,  how  sure  my  treatment  of 
them  is  to  enfeeble  rather  than  enforce  them,  because 
I,  for  my  poor  part,  feel  that  there  are  few  things 


32  EPISTLE  TO  THE  B:OMANS      [ch.  i. 

which  we,  all  of  us,  people  aud  ministers,  need  more 
than  to  catch  some  of  the  infection  of  this  courageous 
confidence,  and  to  be  fired  with  some  spark  of 
Paul's  enthusiasm  for,  and  glorying  in,  the  Gospel 
of  Jesus  Christ. 

I  ask  you,  then,  to  consider  three  things :  (1)  what 
Paul  thought  was  the  Gospel  ?  (2)  what  Paul  thought 
the  Gospel  was?  and  (3)  what  he  felt  about  the 
Gospel  ? 

I.  What  Paul  thought  was  the  Gospel  ? 

He  has  given  to  us  in  his  own  rapid  way  a  summary 
statement,  abbreviated  to  the  very  bone,  and  reduced 
to  the  barest  elements,  of  what  he  meant  by  the 
Gospel.  What  was  the  irreducible  minimum?  The 
facts  of  the  Death  and  Resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ,  as 
you  will  find  written  in  the  fifteenth  chapter  of  the 
First  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians.  So,  then,  to  begin 
with,  the  Gospel  is  not  a  statement  of  principles,  but 
a  record  of  facts,  things  that  have  happened  in  this 
world  of  ours.  But  the  least  part  of  a  fact  is  the 
visible  part  of  it,  and  it  is  of  no  significance  unless  it 
has  explanation,  and  so  Paul  goes  on  to  bind  up  with 
the  facts  an  explanation  of  them.  The  mere  fact  that 
Jesus,  a  young  Nazarene,  was  executed  is  no  more  a 
gospel  than  the  other  one,  that  two  brigands  were 
crucified  beside  Him.  But  the  fact  that  could  be  seen, 
plus  the  explanation  which  underlies  and  interprets  it, 
turns  the  chronicle  into  a  gospel,  and  the  explanation 
begins  with  the  name  of  the  Sufferer ;  for  if  you  want 
to  understand  His  death  you  must  understand  who  it 
was  that  died.  His  death  is  a  thought  pathetic  in  all 
aspects,  and  very  precious  in  many.  But  when  we  hear 
•Christ  died  according  to  the  Scriptures,'  the  whole 
symbolism  of  the  ancient  ritual  and  all  the  glowing 


V.16]  THE  GOSPEL  THE  POWER  OF  GOD  33 

anticipations  of  the  prophets  rise  up  before  us,  and  that 
death  assumes  an  altogether  different  aspect.  If  we 
stop  with  '  Jesus  died,'  then  that  death  may  be  a  beau- 
tiful example  of  heroism,  a  sweet,  pathetic  instance 
of  innocent  suffering,  a  conspicuous  example  of  the 
world's  wages  to  the  world's  teachers,  but  it  is  little 
more.  If,  however,  we  take  Paul's  words  upon  our 
lips,  '  Brethren,  I  declare  unto  you  the  Gospel  which  I 
preached  .  .  .  how  that  Christ  died  .  .  .  according  to 
the  Scriptures,'  the  fact  flashes  up  into  solid  beauty, 
and  becomes  the  Gospel  of  our  salvation.  And  the 
explanation  goes  on,  '  How  that  Christ  died  for  our 
sins.'  Now,  I  may  be  very  blind,  but  I  venture  to  say 
that  I,  for  my  part,  cannot  see  in  what  intelligible  sense 
the  Death  of  Christ  can  be  held  to  have  been  for,  or  on 
behalf  of,  our  sins — that  is,  that  they  may  be  swept  away 
and  we  delivered  from  them— unless  you  admit  the 
atoning  nature  of  His  sacrifice  for  sins.  I  cannot  stop 
to  enlarge,  but  I  venture  to  say  that  any  narrower 
interpretation  evacuates  Paul's  words  of  their  deepest 
significance.  The  explanation  goes  on,  '  And  that  He 
was  buried.'  Why  that  trivial  detail  ?  Partly  because 
it  guarantees  the  fact  of  His  Death,  partly  because  of 
its  bearing  on  the  evidences  of  His  Resurrection.  '  And 
that  He  rose  from  the  dead  according  to  the  Scrip- 
tures.' Great  fact,  without  which  Christ  is  a  shattered 
prop,  and  *  ye  are  yet  in  your  sins.' 

But,  further,  notice  that  my  text  is  also  Paul's  text 
for  this  Epistle,  and  that  it  differs  from  the  condensed 
summary  of  which  I  have  been  speaking  only  as  a  bud 
with  its  petals  closed  differs  from  one  with  them  ex- 
panded in  their  beauty.  And  now,  if  you  will  take  the 
words  of  my  text  as  being  the  keynote  of  this  letter, 
and  read  over  its  first  eight  chapters,  what  is  the  Apostle 

c 


34  EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS      [ch.  i. 

talking  about  when  he  in  them  fulfils  his  purpose  and 
preaches  *  the  Gospel '  to  them  that  are  at  Rome  also  ? 
Here  is,  in  the  briefest  possible  words,  his  summary — 
the  universality  of  sin,  the  awful  burden  of  guilt,  the 
tremendous  outlook  of  penalty,  the  impossibility  of  man 
rescuing  himself  or  living  righteously,  the  Incarnation, 
and  Life,  and  Death  of  Jesus  Christ  as  a  sacrifice  for  the 
sins  of  the  world,  the  hand  of  faith  grasping  the  offered 
blessing,  the  indwelling  in  believing  souls  of  the  Divine 
Spirit,  and  the  consequent  admission  of  man  into  a  life 
of  sonship,  power,  peace,  victory,  glory,  the  child's  place 
in  the  love  of  the  Father  from  which  nothing  can  sepa- 
rate. These  are  the  teachings  which  make  the  staple  of 
this  Epistle.  These  are  the  explanations  of  the  weighty 
phrases  of  my  text.  These  are  at  least  the  essential 
elements  of  the  Gospel  according  to  Paul. 

But  he  was  not  alone  in  this  construction  of  his  mes- 
sage. We  hear  a  great  deal  to-day  about  Pauline  Chris- 
tianity, with  the  implication,  and  sometimes  with  the 
assertion,  that  he  was  the  inventor  of  what,  for  the  sake 
of  using  a  brief  and  easily  intelligible  term,  I  may  call 
Evangelical  Christianity.  Now,  it  is  a  very  illuminating 
thought  for  the  reading  of  the  New  Testament  that 
there  are  the  three  sets  of  teaching,  roughly,  the 
Pauline,  Petrine,  and  Johannine,  and  you  cannot  find 
the  distinctions  between  these  three  in  any  difference 
as  to  the  fundamental  contents  of  the  Gospel;  for  if 
Paul  rings  out, '  God  commendeth  His  love  toward  us 
in  that  while  we  were  yet  sinners  Christ  died  for  us,' 
Peter  declares, '  Who  His  own  self  bare  our  sins  in  His 
own  body  on  the  tree,'  and  John,  from  his  island 
solitude,  sends  across  the  waters  the  hymn  of  praise, 
•  Unto  Him  that  loved  us  and  washed  us  from  our  sins 
in  His  own  blood.'    And  so  the  proud  declaration  of 


V.16]  THE  GOSPEL  THE  POWER  OF  GOD  35 

the  Apostle,  which  he  dared  not  have  ventured  upon 
in  the  face  of  the  acrid  criticism  he  had  to  front  unless 
he  had  known  he  was  perfectly  sure  of  his  ground,  is 
natural  and  warranted — '  Therefore,  whether  it  were  I 
or  they,  so  we  preach.' 

We  are  told  that  we  must  go  back  to  the  Christ  of 
the  Gospels,  the  historical  Christ,  and  that  He  spoke 
nothing  concerning  all  these  important  points  that 
I  have  mentioned  as  being  Paul's  conception  of  the 
Gospel.  Back  to  the  Christ  of  the  Gospels  by  all 
means,  if  you  will  go  to  the  Christ  of  all  the  Gospels 
and  of  the  whole  of  each  Gospel.  And  if  you  do, 
you  will  go  back  to  the  Christ  who  said,  '  The  Son  of 
Man  came  not  to  be  ministered  unto,  but  to  minister, 
and  to  give  His  life  a  ransom  for  many.'  You  will  go 
back  to  the  Christ  who  said,  *  And  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up 
from  the  earth,  will  draw  all  men  unto  Me.'  You  will 
go  back  to  the  Christ  who  said,  '  The  bread  that  I  will 
give  is  My  flesh,  which  I  will  give  for  the  life  of  the 
world.'  You  will  go  back  to  the  Christ  who  bade  His 
followers  hold  in  everlasting  memory,  not  the  tranquil 
beauty  of  His  life,  not  the  persuasive  sweetness  of  His 
gracious  words,  not  the  might  of  His  miracles  of  bless- 
ing, but  the  mysterious  agonies  of  His  last  hours,  by 
which  He  would  have  us  learn  that  there  lie  the 
secret  of  His  power,  the  foundation  of  our  hopes,  the 
stimulus  of  our  service. 

Now,  brethren,  I  have  ventured  to  dwell  so  long 
upon  this  matter,  because  it  is  no  use  talking  about 
the  Gospel  unless  we  understand  what  we  mean  by  it, 
and  I,  for  my  part,  venture  to  say  that  that  is  what 
Paul  meant  by  it,  and  that  is  what  I  mean  by  it. 
I  p:.  jad  for  no  narrow  interpretation  of  the  phrases 
of  my  text,    I  would  not  that  they  should  be  used  to 


36  EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS      [ch.  i. 

check  in  the  smallest  degree  the  diversities  of  repre- 
sentation which,  according  to  the  differences  of  in- 
dividual character,  must  ever  prevail  in  the  conceptions 
which  we  form  and  which  we  preach  of  this  Gospel  of 
Jesus  Christ.  I  want  no  parrot-like  repetition  of  a 
certain  set  of  phrases  embodied,  however  great  may 
be  their  meanings,  in  every  sermon.  And  I  would  that 
the  people  to  whom  those  truths  are  true  would  make 
more  allowance  than  they  sometimes  do  for  the 
differences  to  which  I  have  referred,  and  would  show 
a  great  deal  more  sympathy  than  they  often  do  to 
those,  especially  those  young  men,  who,  with  their 
faces  toward  Christ,  have  not  yet  grown  to  the  full  ac- 
ceptance of  all  that  is  implied  in  those  gracious  words. 
There  is  room  for  a  whole  world  of  thought  in  the 
Gospel  of  Christ  as  Paul  conceived  it,  with  all  the  deep 
foundations  of  implication  and  presupposition  on 
which  it  rests,  and  with  all  the,  as  yet,  undiscovered 
range  of  conclusions  to  which  it  may  lead.  Remem- 
ber that  the  Cross  of  Christ  is  the  key  to  the  universe, 
and  sends  its  influence  into  every  region  of  human 
thought. 

II.  What  Paul  thought  the  Gospel  was. 

'  The  power  of  God  unto  salvation.'  There  was  in 
the  background  of  the  Apostle's  mind  a  kind  of  tacit 
reference  to  the  antithetical  power  that  he  was  going 
up  to  meet,  the  power  of  Rome,  and  we  may  trace 
that  in  the  words  of  my  text.  Rome,  as  I  have  said, 
was  the  embodiment  of  physical  force,  with  no  great 
faith  in  ideas.  And  over  against  this  carnal  might 
Paul  lifts  the  undissembled  weakness  of  the  Cross,  and 
declares  that  it  is  stronger  than  man,  '  the  power  of 
God  unto  salvation.'  Rome  is  high  in  force;  Athens 
is  higher ;  the  Cross  is  highest  of  all,  and  it  comes 


V.16]  THE  GOSPEL  THE  POWER  OF  GOD  37 

shrouded  in  weakness  having  a  poor  Man  hanging 
dying  there.  That  is  a  strange  embodiment  of  divine 
povirer.  Yes,  and  because  so  strange,  it  is  so  touch- 
ing, and  so  conquering.  The  povrer  that  is  draped 
in  weakness  is  power  indeed.  Though  Rome's  power 
did  make  for  righteousness  sometimes,  yet  its  stream 
of  tendency  was  on  the  whole  a  power  to  destruction 
and  grasped  the  nations  of  the  earth  as  some  rude 
hand  might  do  rich  clusters  of  grapes  and  squeeze 
them  into  a  formless  mass.  The  tramp  of  the  legionary 
meant  death,  and  it  was  true  in  many  respects  of  them 
what  was  afterwards  said  of  later  invaders  of  Europe, 
that  where  their  horses'  hoofs  had  once  stamped  no 
grass  ever  grew.  Over  against  this  terrific  engine 
of  destruction  Paul  lifts  up  the  meek  forces  of  love 
which  have  for  their  sole  object  the  salvation  of 
man. 

Then  we  come  to  another  of  the  keywords  about 
which  it  is  very  needful  that  people  should  have 
deeper  and  wider  notions  than  they  often  seem  to 
cherish.  What  is  salvation  ?  Negatively,  the  removal 
and  sweeping  away  of  all  evil,  physical  and  moral, 
as  the  schools  speak.  Positively,  the  inclusion  of  all 
good  for  every  part  of  the  composite  nature  of  a  man 
which  the  man  can  receive  and  which  God  can  bestow. 
And  that  is  the  task  that  the  Gospel  sets  to  itself. 
Now,  I  need  not  remind  you  how,  for  the  execution  of 
such  a  purpose,  it  is  plain  that  something  else  than 
man's  power  is  absolutely  essential.  It  is  only  God 
who  can  alter  my  relation  to  His  government.  It  is 
only  God  who  can  trammel  up  the  inward  consequences 
of  m/  sins  and  prevent  them  from  scourging  me.  It 
is  only  God  who  can  bestow  upon  my  death  a  new  life, 
wL-?h  shall  grow  up  into  righteousness  and  beauty, 


38  EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS      [ch.  i. 

caught  of,  and  kindred  to,  His  own.  But  if  this  be  the 
aim  of  the  Gospel,  then  its  diagnosis  of  man's  sickness 
is  a  very  much  graver  one  than  that  which  finds 
favour  amongst  so  many  of  us  now.  Salvation  is  a 
bigger  word  than  any  of  the  little  gospels  that  we  hear 
clamouring  round  about  us  are  able  to  utter.  It  means 
something  a  great  deal  more  than  either  social  or 
intellectual,  or  still  more,  material  or  political  better- 
ment of  man's  condition.  The  disease  lies  so  deep,  and 
so  great  are  the  destruction  and  loss  partly  experienced, 
and  still  more  awfully  impending  over  every  soul  of 
us,  that  something  else  than  tinkering  at  the  outsides, 
or  dealing,  as  self-culture  does,  with  man's  understand- 
ing or,  as  social  gospels  do,  with  man's  economical  and 
civic  condition,  should  be  brought  to  bear.  Dear 
brethren,  especially  you  Christian  ministers,  preach  a 
social  Christianity  by  all  means,  an  applied  Christianity, 
for  there  does  lie  in  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  a  key 
to  all  the  problems  that  afflict  our  social  condition. 
But  be  sure  first  that  there  is  a  Christianity  before  you 
talk  about  applying  it.  And  remember  that  the  pro- 
cess of  salvation  begins  in  the  deep  heart  of  the 
individual  and  transforms  him  first  and  foremost. 
The  power  is  '  to  every  one  that  believeth.'  It  is 
power  in  its  most  universal  sweep.  Rome's  Empire 
was  wellnigh  ubiquitous,  but,  blessed  be  God,  the 
dove  of  Christ  flies  farther  than  the  Roman  eagle 
\^"ith  beak  and  claw  ready  for  rapine,  and  wherever 
there  are  men  here  is  a  Gospel  for  them.  The  limita- 
tion is  no  limitation  of  its  universality.  It  is  no  limita- 
tion of  the  claim  of  a  medicine  to  be  a  panacea  that 
it  will  only  do  good  to  the  man  who  swallows  it.  |J  And 
that  is  the  only  limitation  of  which  the  Gospel  is 
susceptible,  for  we  have  all  the  same  deep  needs,  ^>he 


V.16]  THE  GOSPEL  THE  POWER  OF  GOD  39 

same  longings ;  we  are  fed  by  the  same  bread,  we  are 
nourished  by  the  same  draughts  of  water,  we  breathe 
the  same  air,  we  have  the  same  sins,  and,  thanks  be  to 
God,  we  have  the  same  Saviour.  '  The  power  of  God 
unto  salvation  to  every  one  that  believeth.' 

Now  before  I  pass  from  this  part  of  my  subject  there 
is  only  one  thing  more  that  I  want  to  say,  and  that  is, 
that  you  cannot  apply  that  glowing  language  about 
•  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation '  to  anything  but  the 
Gospel  that  Paul  preached.  Forms  of  Christianity 
which  have  lost  the  significance  of  the  Incarnation  and 
Death  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  which  have  struck  out  or 
obscured  the  central  facts  with  which  I  have  been 
dealing,  are  not,  never  were,  and,  I  may  presumptu- 
ously venture  to  say,  never  will  be,  forces  of  large 
account  in  this  world.  Here  is  a  clock,  beautiful, 
chased  on  the  back,  with  a  very  artistic  dial-plate,  and 
works  modelled  according  to  the  most  approved  fashion, 
but,  somehow  or  other,  the  thing  won't  go.  Perhaps 
the  mainspring  is  broken.  And  so  it  is  only  the  Gospel, 
as  Paul  expounds  it  and  expands  it  in  this  Epistle,  that 
is  '  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation.'  Dear  brethren, 
in  the  course  of  a  sermon  like  this,  of  course,  one  must 
lay  himself  open  to  the  charge  of  dogmatising.  That 
cannot  be  helped  under  the  conditions  of  my  space.  But 
let  me  say  as  my  own  solemn  conviction — I  know  that 
that  is  not  worth  much  to  you,  but  it  is  my  justifica- 
tion for  speaking  in  such  a  fashion — let  me  say  as  my 
solemn  conviction  that  you  may  as  well  take  the  key- 
stone out  of  an  arch,  with  nothing  to  hold  the  other 
stones  together  or  keep  them  from  toppling  in  hideous 
ruin  on  your  unfortunate  head,  as  take  the  doctrine 
that  Paul  summed  up  in  that  one  word  out  of  your 
conception  of  Christianity  and  expect  it  to  work.    And 


40  EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS      [ch.  i. 

be  sure  of  this,  that  there  is  only  one  Name  that  lords 
it  over  the  demons  of  afflicted  humanity,  and  that  if  a 
man  goes  and  tries  to  eject  them  with  any  less  potent 
charm  than  Paul's  Gospel,  they  will  turn  upon  him 
with  'Jesus  I  know,  and  Paul  I  know,  but  who  are 
you?' 

III.  What  Paul  felt  about  this  Gospel. 

His  restrained  expression,  *  I  am  not  ashamed,'  is  the 
stronger  for  its  very  moderation.  It  witnesses  to  the 
fixed  purpose  of  his  heart  and  attitude  of  his  mind, 
Avhilst  it  suggests  that  he  was  well  aware  of  all  the 
temptations  in  Rome  to  being  ashamed  of  it  there. 
Think  of  what  was  arrayed  against  him — venerable 
religion,  systematised  philosophies,  bitter  hatred  and 
prejudice,  material  power  and  wealth.  These  were  the 
brazen  armour  of  Goliath,  and  this  little  David  went 
cheerily  down  into  the  valley  with  five  pebble  stones 
in  a  leathern  wallet,  and  was  quite  sure  how  it  was 
going  to  end.  And  it  ended  as  he  expected.  His 
Gospel  shook  the  kingdom  of  the  Roman,  and  cast  it 
in  another  mould. 

And  there  are  temptations,  plenty  of  them,  for  us, 
dear  friends,  to-day,  to  bate  our  confidence.  The 
drift  of  what  calls  itself  influential  opinion  is  anti- 
supernatural,  and  we  all  are  conscious  of  the  pre- 
sence of  that  element  all  round  about  us.  It  tells  with 
special  force  upon  our  younger  men,  but  it  affects 
us  all.  In  this  day,  when  a  large  portion  of  the 
periodical  press,  which  does  the  thinking  for  most  of 
us,  looks  askance  at  these  truths,  and  when,  on  the 
principle  that  in  the  kingdom  of  the  blind  the  one- 
eyed  man  is  the  king,  popular  novelists  become  our 
theological  tutors,  and  when  every  new  publishing 
season  brings    out  a  new    conclusive    destruction    of 


V.16]  THE  GOSPEL  THE  POWER  OF  GOD  41 

Christianity,  which  supersedes  last  season's  equally- 
complete  destruction,  it  is  hard  for  some  of  us  to  keep 
our  flags  flying.  The  ice  round  about  us  will  either 
bring  down  the  temperature,  or,  if  it  stimulates  us  to  put 
more  fuel  on  the  fire,  perhaps  the  fire  may  melt  it.  And 
so  the  more  we  feel  ourselves  encompassed  by  these 
temptations,  the  louder  is  the  call  to  Christian  men  to 
cast  themselves  back  on  the  central  verities,  and  to  draw 
at  first  hand  from  them  the  inspiration  which  shall  be 
their  safety.  And  how  is  that  to  be  done  ?  Well,  there 
are  many  ways  by  which  thoughtful,  and  cultivated, 
students  may  do  it.  But  may  I  venture  to  deal  here 
rather  with  ways  which  all  Christian  people  have  open 
before  them  ?  And  I  am  bold  to  say  that  the  way  to  be 
sure  of  '  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation '  is  to  submit 
ourselves  continually  to  its  cleansing  and  renewing 
influence.  This  certitude,  brethren,  may  be  contributed 
to  by  books  of  apologetics,  and  by  other  sources  of 
investigation  and  study  which  I  should  be  sorry  indeed 
to  be  supposed  in  any  degree  to  depreciate.  But  the 
true  way  to  get  it  is,  by  deep  communion  with  the 
living  God,  to  realise  the  personality  of  Jesus  Christ  as 
present  with  us,  our  Friend,  our  Saviour,  our  Sanctifier 
by  His  Holy  Spirit.  Why,  Paul's  Gospel  was,  I  was 
going  to  say,  altogether — that  would  be  an  exaggera- 
tion— but  it  was  to  a  very  large  extent  simply  the 
generalisation  of  his  own  experience.  That  is  what  all 
of  us  will  find  to  be  the  Gospel  that  we  have  to  preach. 
*  We  speak  that  we  do  know  and  testify  that  we  have 
seen.'  And  it  was  because  this  man  could  say  so 
assuredly — because  the  depths  of  his  own  conscience 
and  the  witness  within  him  bore  testimony  to  it — '  He 
loved  me  and  gave  Himself  for  me,'  that  he  could  also 
say, '  The  power  of  God  unto  salvation  to  every  one 


42  EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS     [ch.  i. 

that  belleveth.'  Go  down  into  the  depths,  brother  and 
friend ;  cry  to  Him  out  of  the  depths.  Then  you  will 
feel  His  strong,  gentle  grip  lifting  you  to  the  heights, 
and  that  will  give  power  that  nothing  else  will,  and 
you  will  be  able  to  say, '  I  have  heard  Him  myself,  and 
I  know  that  this  is  the  Christ,  the  Saviour  of  the  world.' 
But  there  is  yet  another  source  of  certitude  open  to 
us  all,  and  that  is  the  history  of  the  centuries.  Our 
modern  sceptics,  attacking  the  truth  of  Christianity 
mostly  from  the  physical  side,  are  strangely  blind  to 
the  worth  of  history.  It  is  a  limitation  of  faculty 
that  besets  them  in  a  good  many  directions,  but  it  does 
not  work  anywhere  more  fatally  than  it  does  in  their 
attitude  towards  the  Gospel.  After  all,  Jesus  Christ 
spoke  the  ultimate  word  when  He  said,  *  By  their  fruits 
ye  shall  know  them.'  And  it  is  so,  because  just  as 
what  is  morally  wrong  cannot  be  politically  right,  so 
what  is  intellectually  false  cannot  be  morally  good. 
Truth,  goodness,  beauty,  they  are  but  three  names  for 
various  aspects  of  one  thing,  and  if  it  be  that  the 
difference  between  B.C.  and  a.d.  has  come  from  a  Gospel 
which  is  not  the  truth  of  God,  then  all  I  can  say  is, 
that  the  richest  vintage  that  ever  the  world  saw,  and 
the  noblest  wine  of  which  it  ever  drank,  did  grow  upon 
a  thorn.  I  know  that  the  Christian  Church  has  sinfully 
and  tragically  failed  to  present  Christ  adequately  to 
the  world.  But  for  all  that,  *  Ye  are  My  witnesses,  saith 
the  Lord ' ;  and  nobler  manners  and  purer  laws  have 
come  in  the  wake  of  this  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ.  And 
as  I  look  round  about  upon  what  Christianity  has  done 
in  the  world,  I  venture  to  say,  •  Show  us  any  system 
of  religion  or  of  no  religion  that  has  done  that  or  any- 
thing the  least  like  it,  and  then  we  will  discuss  with 
you  the  other  evidences  of  the  Gospel.* 


V.16]  THE  GOSPEL  THE  POWER  OF  GOD  43 

In  closing  these  words,  may  I  venture  relying  on  the 
melancholy  privilege  of  seniority,  to  drop  for  a  minute 
or  two  into  a  tone  of  advice?  I  would  say,  do  not 
be  frightened  out  of  your  confidence  either  by  the 
premature  paean  of  victory  from  the  opposite  camp, 
or  by  timid  voices  in  our  own  ranks.  And  that  you 
may  not  be  so  frightened,  be  sure  to  keep  clear  in  your 
mind  the  distinction  between  the  things  that  can  be 
shaken  and  the  kingdom  that  cannot  be  moved.  It  is 
bad  strategy  to  defend  an  elongated  line.  It  is 
cowardice  to  treat  the  capture  of  an  outpost  as 
involving  the  evacuation  of  the  key  of  the  position. 
It  is  a  mistake,  to  which  many  good  Christian  people 
are  sorely  tempted  in  this  day,  to  assert  such  a  connec- 
tion between  the  eternal  Gospel  and  our  deductions 
from  the  principles  of  that  Gospel  as  that  the  refuta- 
tion of  the  one  must  be  the  overthrow  of  the  other. 
And  if  it  turns  out  to  be  so  in  any  case,  a  large  part  of 
the  blame  lies  upon  those  good  and  mistaken  people 
who  insist  that  everything  must  be  held  or  all  must  be 
abandoned.  The  burning  questions  of  this  day  about 
the  genuineness  of  the  books  of  Scripture,  inspiration, 
inerrancy,  and  the  like,  are  not  so  associated  with  this 
word,  *  God  so  loved  the  world  .  .  .  that  whosoever 
believeth  in  Him  should  not  perish,  but  have  everlast- 
ing life,'  as  that  the  discovery  of  errors  in  the  Second 
Book  of  Chronicles  shakes  the  foundations  of  the 
Christian  certitude.  In  a  day  like  this  truth  must 
change  its  vesture.  Who  believes  that  the  Dissenting 
Churches  of  England  are  the  highest,  perfect  embodi- 
ment of  the  Kingdom  of  God?  And  who  believes 
that  any  creed  of  man's  making  has  in  it  all  and  has 
in  it  only  the  everlasting  Gospel?  So  do  not  be 
frightened,  and  do  not   think  that  when  the  things 


44  EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS      [ch.  i. 

that  can  be  shaken  are  removed,  the  things  that 
cannot  be  shaken  are  at  all  less  likely  to  remain. 
Depend  upon  it,  the  Gospel,  whose  outline  I  have 
imperfectly  tried  to  set  before  you  now,  will  last  as 
long  as  men  on  earth  know  they  are  sinners  and 
need  a  Saviour.  Did  you  ever  see  some  mean  build- 
ings that  have  by  degrees  been  gathered  round  the 
sides  of  some  majestic  cathedral,  and  do  you  suppose 
that  the  sweeping  away  of  those  shanties  would  touch 
the  solemn  majesty  of  the  mediaeval  glories  of  the 
building  that  rises  above  them?  Take  them  away  if 
need  be,  and  it,  in  its  proportion,  beauty,  strength, 
and  heavenward  aspiration,  will  stand  more  glorious 
for  the  sweeping  away.  Preach  positive  truth.  Do  not 
preach  doubts.  You  remember  Mr.  Kingsley's  book 
Yeast.  Its  title  was  its  condemnation.  Yeast  is  not 
meant  to  be  drunk ;  it  is  meant  to  be  kept  in  the  dark 
till  the  process  of  fermentation  goes  on  and  it  workf 
itself  clear,  and  then  you  may  bring  it  out.  Do  not  be 
always  arguing  with  the  enemy.  It  is  a  great  deal 
better  to  preach  the  truth.  Remember  what  Jesus 
said:  'Let  them  alone,  they  are  blind  leaders  of  the 
blind,  they  will  fall  into  the  ditch.'  It  is  not  given  to 
every  one  of  us  to  conduct  controversial  arguments  in 
the  pulpit.  There  are  some  much  wiser  and  abler 
brethren  amongst  us  than  you  or  I  who  can  do  it.  Let 
us  be  contented  with,  not  the  humbler  but  the  more 
glorious,  office  of  telling  what  we  have  known,  leaving 
it,  as  it  will  do,  to  prove  itself.  You  remember  what 
the  old  woman,  who  had  been  favoured  by  her  pastor 
with  an  elaborate  sermon  to  demonstrate  the  existence 
of  God,  said  when  he  had  finished;  'Well,  I  believe 
there  is  a  God,  for  all  the  gentleman  says.' 
As  one  who  sees  the  lengthening  shadows  falling 


\. 


V.16]  THE  GOSPEL  THE  POWER  OF  GOD  45 

over  the  darkening  field,  may  I  say  one  word  to  my 
junior  brethren,  with  all  whose  struggles  and  doubts 
and  difficulties  I,  for  one,  do  most  tenderly  sympathise  ? 
I  beseech  them — though,  alas !  the  advice  condemns  the 
giver  of  it  as  he  looks  back  over  long  years  of  his 
ministry — to  be  faithful  to  the  Gospel  how  that '  Jesus 
Christ  died  for  our  sins  according  to  the  Scriptures.' 
Dear  young  friends,  if  you  only  go  where  Paul  went, 
and  catch  the  inspiration  that  he  caught  there,  your 
path  will  be  clear.  It  was  in  contact  with  Christ, 
whose  passion  for  soul-winning  brought  Him  from 
heaven,  that  Paul  learned  his  passion  for  soul-winning. 
And  if  you  and  I  are  touched  with  the  divine  en- 
thusiasm, and  have  that  aim  clear  before  us,  we  shall 
soon  find  out  that  there  is  only  one  power,  one  name 
given  under  heaven  among  men  whereby  we  can  ac- 
complish what  we  desire — the  name  of  'Jesus  Christ 
that  died,  yea,  rather,  that  is  risen  again,  who  is  even 
at  the  right  hand  of  God,  and  also  maketh  intercession 
for  us.'  If  our  aim  is  clear  before  us  it  will  prescribe 
our  methods,  and  if  the  inspiration  of  our  ministry  is, 
*I  determine  not  to  know  anything  among  you  save 
Jesus  Christ  and  Him  crucified,'  then,  whether  men 
will  hear  or  whether  they  will  forbear,  they  shall 
know  that  there  hath  been  a  Prophet  among  them. 


WORLD-WIDE  SIN  AND  WORLD-WIDE 
REDEMPTION 

'Now  we  know,  that  what  things  soever  the  law  saith,  it  saith  to  them  who  are 
under  the  law ;  that  every  mouth  may  be  stopped,  and  all  the  world  may  become 
guilty  before  God.  20.  Therefore  by  the  deeds  of  the  law  there  shall  no  flesh  be 
justified  in  His  sight :  for  by  the  law  is  the  knowledge  of  sin.  21.  But  now  the 
righteousness  of  God  without  the  law  is  manifested,  being  witnessed  by  the  law 
and  the  prophets  ;  22.  Even  the  righteousness  of  God  which  is  by  faith  of  Jesus 
Christ  unto  all  and  upon  all  them  that  believe ;  for  there  is  no  difference :  23.  For 
all  have  sinned,  and  come  short  of  the  glory  of  God  :  24.  Being  justified  freely  by 
His  grace,  through  the  redemption  that  is  in  Christ  Jesus  ;  25.  "Whom  God  hath 
set  forth  to  be  a  propitiation  through  faith  in  His  blood,  to  declare  His  righteous- 
ness for  the  remission  of  sins  that  are  past,  through  the  forbearance  of  God;  26. 
To  declare,  I  say,  at  this  time  His  righteousness ;  that  He  might  be  just,  and  the 
justifier  of  him  which  belie veth  in  Jesus.'— Romans  iii.  19-26. 

Let  us  note  in  general  terms  the  large  truths  which 
this  passage  contains.  We  may  mass  these  under  four 
heads : 

I.  Paul's  view  of  the  purpose  of  the  law. 

He  has  been  quoting  a  mosaic  of  Old  Testament  pas- 
sages from  the  Psalms  and  Isaiah.  He  regards  these  as 
part  of '  the  law,'  which  term,  therefore,  in  his  view,  here 
includes  the  whole  previous  revelation,  considered  as 
making  known  God's  will  as  to  man's  conduct.  Every 
word  of  God,  whether  promise,  or  doctrine,  or  specific 
command,  has  in  it  some  element  bearing  on  conduct. 
God  reveals  nothing  only  in  order  that  we  may  know, 
but  all  that,  knowing,  we  may  do  and  be  what  is 
pleasing  in  His  sight.    All  His  words  are  law. 

But  Paul  sets  forth  another  view  of  its  purpose  here ; 
namely,  to  drive  home  to  men's  consciences  the  convic- 
tion of  sin.  That  is  not  the  only  purpose,  for  God 
reveals  duty  primarily  in  order  that  men  may  do  it, 
and  His  law  is  meant  to  be  obeyed.  But,  failing 
obedience,  this  second  purpose  comes  into  action,  and 
His   law  is  a  swift  witness   against  sin.     The  more 


vs.  19-26]  TAUL'S  LONGING  47 

clearly  we  know  our  duty,  the  more  poignant  will  be 
our  consciousness  of  failure.  The  light  which  shines 
to  show  the  path  of  right,  shines  to  show  our  deviations 
from  it.  And  that  conviction  of  sin,  which  it  was  the 
very  purpose  of  all  the  previous  Revelation  to  produce, 
is  a  merciful  gift ;  for,  as  the  Apostle  implies,  it  is  the 
prerequisite  to  the  faith  which  saves. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  there  was  a  far  prof ounder  and 
more  inward  conviction  of  sin  among  the  Jews  than  in 
any  heathen  nation.  Contrast  the  wailings  of  many  a 
psalm  with  the  tone  in  Greek  or  Roman  literature.  No 
doubt  there  is  a  law  written  on  men's  hearts  which 
evokes  a  lower  measure  of  the  same  consciousness  of 
sin.  There  are  prayers  among  the  Assyrian  and 
Babylonian  tablets  which  might  almost  stand  beside 
the  Fifty-first  Psalm ;  but,  on  the  whole,  the  deep  sense 
of  sin  was  the  product  of  the  revealed  law.  The  best 
use  of  our  consciousness  of  what  we  ought  to  be,  is 
when  it  rouses  conscience  to  feel  the  discordance  with 
it  of  what  we  are,  and  so  drives  us  to  Christ.  Law, 
whether  in  the  Old  Testament,  or  as  written  in  our 
hearts  by  their  very  make,  is  the  slave  whose  task  is 
to  bring  us  to  Christ,  who  will  give  us  power  to  keep 
God's  commandments. 

Another  purpose  of  the  law  is  stated  in  verse  21,  as 
being  to  bear  witness,  in  conjunction  with  the  prophets, 
to  a  future  more  perfect  revelation  of  God's  righteous- 
ness. Much  of  the  law  was  symbolic  and  prophetic. 
The  ideal  it  set  forth  could  not  always  remain  unful- 
filled. The  whole  attitude  of  that  system  was  one  of 
forward-looking  expectancy.  There  is  much  danger 
lest,  in  modern  investigations  as  to  the  authorship, 
date,  and  genesis  of  the  Old  Testament  revelation,  its 
central  characteristic  should  be  lost  sight  of ;  namely, 


48  EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS   [ch.  hi. 

its  pointing  onwards  to  a  more  perfect  revelation  which 
should  supersede  it. 

II.  Paul's  view  of  universal  sinfulness. 

He  states  that  twice  in  this  passage  (vs.  20  to  24),  and 
it  underlies  his  view  of  the  purpose  of  law.  In  verse  20 
he  asserts  that  *  by  the  works  of  the  law  shall  no  flesh 
be  justified,'  and  in  verses  23  and  24  he  advances  from 
that  negative  statement  to  the  positive  assertion  that 
all  have  sinned.  The  impossibility  of  justification  by 
the  works  of  the  law  may  be  shown  from  two  considera- 
tions :  one,  that,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  no  flesh  has  ever 
done  them  all  with  absolute  completeness  and  purity ; 
and,  second,  that,  even  if  they  had  ever  been  so  done, 
they  would  not  have  availed  to  secure  acquittal  at  a 
tribunal  where  motive  counts  for  more  than  deed.  The 
former  is  the  main  point  with  Paul. 

In  verse  23  the  same  fact  of  universal  experience  is 
contemplated  as  both  positive  sin  and  negative  falling 
short  of  the  '  glory '  (which  here  seems  to  mean,  as  in 
John  V.  44,  xii.  43,  approbation  from  God).  'There  is 
no  distinction,'  but  all  varieties  of  condition,  character, 
attainment,  are  alike  in  this,  that  the  fatal  taint  is 
upon  them  all.  '  We  have,  all  of  us,  one  human  heart.' 
We  are  alike  in  physical  necessities,  in  primal  instincts, 
and,  most  tragically  of  all,  in  the  common  experience 
of  sinfulness. 

Paul  does  not  mean  to  bring  all  varieties  of  character 
down  to  one  dead  level,  but  he  does  mean  to  assert 
that  none  is  free  from  the  taint.  A  man  need  only 
be  honest  in  self-examination  to  endorse  the  statement, 
so  far  as  he  himself  is  concerned.  The  Gospel  would 
be  better  understood  if  the  fact  of  universal  sinfulness 
were  more  deeply  felt.  Its  superiority  to  all  schemes 
for  making  everybody  happy  by  rearrangements  of 


vs.  19-26]  PAUL'S  LONGING  49 

property,  or  increase  of  culture,  would  be  seen  through ; 
and  the  only  cure  for  human  misery  would  be  dis- 
cerned to  be  what  cures  universal  sinfulness. 

III.  So  we  have  next  Paul's  view  of  the  remedy  for 
man's  sin.  That  is  stated  in  general  terms  in  verses  21, 
22.  Into  a  world  of  sinful  men  comes  streaming  the 
light  of  a  *  righteousness  of  God.'  That  expression  is 
here  used  to  mean  a  moral  state  of  conformity  with 
God's  will,  imparted  by  God.  The  great,  joyful  mes- 
sage, which  Paul  felt  himself  sent  to  proclaim,  is  that 
the  true  way  to  reach  the  state  of  conformity  which 
law  requires,  and  which  the  unsophisticated,  universal 
conscience  acknowledges  not  to  have  been  reached,  is 
the  way  of  faith. 

The  message  is  so  familiar  to  us  that  we  may  easily 
fail  to  realise  its  essential  greatness  and  wonderfulness 
when  first  proclaimed.  That  God  should  give  right- 
eousness, that  it  should  be  '  of  God,'  not  only  as  coming 
from  Him,  but  as,  in  some  real  way,  being  kindred 
with  His  own  perfection ;  that  it  should  be  brought  to 
men  by  Jesus  Christ,  as  ancient  legends  told  that  a 
beneficent  Titan  brought  from  heaven,  in  a  hollow 
cane,  the  gift  of  fire ;  and  that  it  should  become  ours 
by  the  simple  process  of  trusting  in  Jesus  Christ,  are 
truths  which  custom  has  largely  robbed  of  their 
wonderfulness.  Let  us  meditate  more  on  them  till 
they  regain,  by  our  own  experience  of  their  power, 
some  of  the  celestial  light  which  belongs  to  them. 

Observe  that  in  verse  22  the  universality  of  the 
redemption  which  is  in  Christ  is  deduced  from  the 
universality  of  sin.  The  remedy  must  reach  as  far  as 
the  disease.  If  there  is  no  difference  in  regard  to  sin, 
there  can  be  none  in  regard  to  the  sweep  of  redemp- 
tion.   The  doleful  universality  of  the  covering  spread 

D 


50  EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS   [ch.  iil 

over  all  nations,  has  corresponding  to  it  the  blessed 
universality  of  the  light  which  is  sent  forth  to  flood 
them  all.  Sin's  empire  cannot  stretch  farther  than 
Christ's  kingdom. 

IV.  Paul's  view  of  what  makes  the  Gospel  the 
remedy. 

In  verses  21  and  22  it  was  stated  generally  that 
Christ  was  the  channel,  and  faith  the  condition,  of 
righteousness.  The  personal  object  of  faith  was  de- 
clared, but  not  the  special  thing  in  Christ  which  was 
to  be  trusted  in.  That  is  fully  set  forth  in  verses  24-26. 
We  cannot  attempt  to  discuss  the  great  words  in  these 
verses,  each  of  which  would  want  a  volume.  But  we 
may  note  that  •  justified '  here  means  to  be  accounted 
or  declared  righteous,  as  a  judicial  act;  and  that 
justification  is  traced  in  its  ultimate  source  to  God's 
'grace,' — His  own  loving  disposition — which  bends  to 
unworthy  and  lowly  creatures,  and  is  regarded  as 
having  for  the  medium  of  its  bestowal  the  '  redemption ' 
that  is  in  Christ  Jesus.  That  is  the  channel  through 
which  grace  comes  from  God. 

'Redemption'  implies  captivity,  liberation,  and  a 
price  paid.  The  metaphor  of  slaves  set  free  by  ransom 
is  exchanged  in  verse  25  for  a  sacrificial  reference.  A 
propitiatory  sacrifice  averts  punishment  from  the 
offerer.  The  death  of  the  victim  procures  the  life  of 
the  worshipper.  So,  a  propitiatory  or  atoning  sacrifice 
is  offered  by  Christ's  blood,  or  death.  That  sacrifice  is 
the  ransom-price  through  which  our  captivity  is  ended, 
and  our  liberty  assured.  As  His  redemption  is  the 
channel '  through '  which  God's  grace  comes  to  men,  so 
faith  is  the  condition '  through '  which  (ver.  25)  we  make 
that  grace  ours. 

Note,  then,  that  Paul  does  not  merely  point  to  Jesus 


vs.  19-26]  PAUL'S  LONGING  51 

Christ  as  Saviour,  but  to  His  death  as  the  saving 
power.  We  are  to  have  faith  in  Jesus  Christ  (ver.  22). 
But  that  is  not  a  complete  statement.  It  must  be 
faith  in  His  propitiation,  if  it  is  to  bring  us  into  living 
contact  with  His  redemption.  A  gospel  which  says 
much  of  Christ,  but  little  of  His  Cross,  or  which  dilates 
on  the  beauty  of  His  life,  but  stammers  when  it  begins 
to  speak  of  the  sacrifice  in  His  death,  is  not  Paul's 
Gospel,  and  it  will  have  little  power  to  deal  with  the 
universal  sickness  of  sin. 

The  last  verses  of  the  passage  set  forth  another 
purpose  attained  by  Christ's  sacrifice;  namely,  the 
vindication  of  God's  righteousness  in  forbearing  to 
inflict  punishment  on  sins  committed  before  the  advent 
of  Jesus.  That  Cross  rayed  out  its  power  in  all  direc- 
tions— to  the  heights  of  the  heavens ;  to  the  depths  of 
Hades  (Col.  i.  20) ;  to  the  ages  that  were  to  come,  and 
to  those  that  were  past.  The  suspension  of  punish- 
ment through  all  generations,  from  the  beginning  till 
that  day  when  the  Cross  was  reared  on  Calvary,  was 
due  to  that  Cross  having  been  present  to  the  divine 
mind  from  the  beginning.  'The  judge  is  condemned 
when  the  guilty  is  acquitted,'  or  left  unpunished. 
There  would  be  a  blot  on  God's  government,  not 
because  it  was  so  severe,  but  because  it  was  so  for- 
bearing, unless  His  justice  was  vindicated,  and  the 
fatal  consequences  of  sin  shown  in  the  sacrifice  of 
Christ.  God  could  not  have  shown  Himself  just,  in 
view  either  of  age-long  forbearance,  or  of  now  justify- 
ing the  sinner,  unless  the  Cross  had  shown  that  He 
was  not  immorally  indulgent  toward  sin. 


NO  DIFFERENCE 

"There  is  no  difference.'— Romans  iii.  22. 

The  things  in  which  all  men  are  alike  are  far  more 
important  than  those  in  which  they  differ.  The  diver- 
sities are  superficial,  the  identities  are  deep  as  life. 
Physical  processes  and  wants  are  the  same  for  every- 
body. All  men,  be  they  kings  or  beggars,  civilised  or 
savage,  rich  or  poor,  wise  or  foolish,  cultured  or  illiterate, 
breathe  the  same  breath,  hunger  and  thirst,  eat  and 
drink,  sleep,  are  smitten  by  the  same  diseases,  and  die 
at  last  the  same  death.  We  have  all  of  us  one  human 
heart.  Tears  and  grief,  gladness  and  smiles,  move  us 
all.  Hope,  fear,  love,  play  the  same  music  upon  all 
heart-strings.  The  same  great  law  of  duty  over-arches 
every  man,  and  the  same  heaven  of  God  bends  above 
him. 

Religion  has  to  do  with  the  deep-seated  identities  and 
not  with  the  superficial  differences.  And  though  there 
have  been  many  aristocratic  religions  in  the  world,  it 
is  the  great  glory  of  Christianity  that  it  goes  straight 
to  the  central  similarities,  and  brushes  aside,  as  of 
altogether  secondary  importance,  all  the  subordinate 
diversities,  grappling  with  the  great  facts  which  are 
common  to  humanity,  and  with  the  large  hopes  which 
all  may  inherit. 

Paul  here,  in  his  grand  way,  triumphs  and  rises  above 
all  these  small  differences  between  man  and  man,  more 
pure  or  less  pure,  Jew  or  Gentile,  wise  or  foolish,  and 
avers  that,  in  regard  of  the  deepest  and  most  important 
things, '  there  is  no  difference,'  and  so  his  Gospel  is  a 
Gospel  for  the  world,  because  it  deals  with  all  men  on 
the  same  level.    Now  I  wish  to  work  out  this  great 

62 


V.  22]  NO  DIFFERENCE  53 

glory  and  characteristic  of  the  Gospel  system  in  a  few 
remarks,  and  to  point  out  to  you  the  more  important 
of  these  things  in  which  all  men,  be  they  what  or  who 
they  may,  stand  in  one  category  and  have  identical 
experiences  and  interests. 

I.  First,  there  is  no  dijfference  in  the  fact  of  sin. 

Now  let  us  understand  that  the  Gospel  does  not  assert 
that  there  is  no  difference  in  the  degrees  of  sin.  Chris- 
tianity does  not  teach,  howsoever  some  of  its  apostles 
may  seem  to  have  taught,  or  unconsciously  lent  them- 
selves to  representations  which  imply  the  view  that 
there  was  no  difference  between  a  man  who  '  did  by 
nature  the  things  contained  in  the  law,'  as  Paul  says, 
and  the  man  who  set  himself  to  violate  law.  There  is 
no  such  monstrous  teaching  in  the  New  Testament  as 
that  all  blacks  are  the  same  shade,  all  sin  of  the  same 
gravity,  no  such  teaching  as  that  a  man  that  tries 
according  to  his  light  to  do  what  is  right  stands  on 
exactly  the  same  level  as  the  man  who  flouts  all  such 
obligations,  and  has  driven  the  chariots  of  his  lusts  and 
passions  through  every  law  that  may  stand  in  his  way. 

But  even  whilst  we  have  to  insist  upon  that,  that  the 
teaching  of  my  text  is  not  of  an  absolute  identity  of 
criminality,  but  only  an  universal  participation  in 
criminality,  do  not  let  us  forget  that,  if  you  take  the 
two  extremes,  and  suppose  it  possible  that  there  were 
a  best  man  in  all  the  world,  and  a  worst  man  in  all  the 
world,  the  difference  between  these  two  is  not  perhaps 
so  great  as  at  first  sight  it  looks.  For  we  have  to 
remember  that  motives  make  actions,  and  that  you 
cannot  judge  of  these  by  considering  those,  that  '  as  a 
man  thinketh  in  his  heart,'  and  not  as  a  man  does  with 
his  hands,  *  so  is  he.'  We  have  to  remember,  also,  that 
there  may  be  lives,  sedulously  and  immaculately  respect- 


54  EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS   [ch.  hi. 

able  and  pure,  which  are  white  rather  with  the  un- 
wholesome leprosy  of  disease  than  with  the  wholesome 
purity  of  health. 

In  Queen  Elizabeth's  time,  the  way  in  which  they 
cleaned  the  hall  of  a  castle,  the  floor  of  which  might 
be  covered  with  remnants  of  food  and  all  manner  of 
abominations,  was  to  strew  another  layer  of  rushes 
over  the  top  of  the  filth,  and  then  they  thought  them- 
selves quite  neat  and  respectable.  And  that  is  what  a 
great  many  of  you  do,  cover  the  filth  well  up  with  a 
sweet  smelling  layer  of  conventional  proprieties,  and 
think  yourselves  clean,  and  the  pinks  of  perfection. 
God  forbid  that  I  should  say  one  word  that  would  seem 
to  cast  any  kind  of  slur  upon  the  effort  that  any  man 
makes  to  do  what  he  knows  to  be  right,  but  this  I 
proclaim,  or  rather  my  text  proclaims  for  me,  that, 
giving  full  weight  and  value  to  all  that,  and  admitting 
the  existence  of  variations  in  degree,  the  identity  is 
deeper  than  the  diversity ;  and  there  is  '  not  a  just  man 
upon  earth  that  doeth  good  and  sinneth  not.' 

Oh,  dear  friends !  it  is  not  a  question  of  degree,  but 
of  direction ;  not  how  far  the  ship  has  gone  on  her 
voyage,  but  how  she  heads.  Good  and  evil  are  the  same 
in  essence,  whatever  be  their  intensity  and  whatever  be 
their  magnitude.  Arsenic  is  arsenic,  whether  you  have 
a  ton  of  it  or  a  grain ;  and  a  very  small  dose  will  be 
enough  to  poison.  The  Gospel  starts  with  the  assertion 
that  there  is  no  difference  in  the  fact  of  sin.  The 
assertion  is  abundantly  confirmed.  Does  not  conscience 
assent?  We  all  admit  'faults,'  do  we  not?  We  all 
acknowledge  'imperfections.'  It  is  that  little  word 
•sin'  which  seems  to  bring  in  another  order  or  con- 
siderations, and  to  command  the  assent  of  conscience 
less  readily.    But  sin  is  nothing  except  fault  considered 


V.22]  NO  DIFFERENCE  55 

in  reference  to  God's  law.  Bring  the  notion  of  God 
into  the  life,  and  '  faults '  and  '  slips '  and  '  weaknesses,' 
and  all  the  other  names  by  which  we  try  to  smooth 
down  the  ugliness  of  the  ugly  thing,  start  up  at  once 
into  their  tone,  magnitude,  and  importance,  and  stand 
avowed  as  sins. 

Well  now,  if  there  be,  therefore,  this  universal  con- 
sciousness of  imperfection,  and  if  that  consciousness  of 
imperfection  has  only  need  to  be  brought  into  contact 
with  God,  as  it  were,  to  flame  thus,  let  me  remind  you, 
too,  that  this  fact  of  universal  sinfulness  puts  us  all  in 
one  class,  no  matter  what  may  be  the  superficial  diflfer- 
ence.  Shakespeare  and  the  Australian  savage,  the 
biggest  brain  and  the  smallest,  the  loftiest  and  the 
lowest  of  us,  the  purest  and  the  foulest  of  us,  we  all 
come  into  the  same  order.  It  is  a  question  of  classifica- 
tion. 'The  Scripture  hath  concluded  all  under  sin,' 
that  is  to  say,  has  shut  all  men  up  as  in  a  prison.  You 
remember  in  the  French  Revolution,  all  manner  of 
people  were  huddled  indiscriminately  into  the  same 
dungeon  of  the  Paris  prisons.  You  would  find  a 
princess  and  some  daughter  of  shame  from  the  gutters ; 
a  boor  from  the  country  and  a  landlord,  a  count,  a 
marquis,  a  savant,  a  philosopher  and  an  illiterate 
workman,  all  together  in  the  dungeons.  They  kept 
up  the  distinctions  of  society  and  of  class  with  a 
ghastly  mockery,  even  to  the  very  moment  when  the 
tumbrils  came  for  them.  And  so  here  are  we  all,  in 
some  sense  inclosed  within  the  solemn  cells  of  this 
great  prison-house,  and  whether  we  be  wise  or  foolish, 
we  are  prisoners,  whether  we  have  titles  or  not,  we  are 
prisoners.  You  may  be  a  student,  but  you  are  a  sinner : 
you  may  be  a  rich  Manchester  merchant,  but  you  are  a 
sinner ;  you  may  be  a  man  of  rank,  but  you  are  a  sinner. 


56  EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS   [oh.iii. 

Naaman  went  to  Elislia  and  was  very  much  offended 
because  Elisha  treated  him  as  a  leper  who  happened  to 
be  a  nobleman.  He  wanted  to  be  treated  as  a  nobleman 
who  happened  to  be  a  leper.  And  that  is  the  way  with 
a  great  many  of  us ;  we  do  not  like  to  be  driven  into 
one  class  with  all  the  crowd  of  evildoers.  But,  mj 
friend,  *  there  is  no  difference.'  •  All  have  sinned  and 
come  short  of  the  glory  of  God.' 

II.  Again,  there  is  no  difference  in  the  fact  of  God's 
love  to  us. 

God  does  not  love  men  because  of  what  they  are, 
therefore  He  does  not  cease  to  love  them  because  of 
what  they  are.  His  love  to  the  sons  of  men  is  not 
drawn  out  by  their  goodness,  their  morality,  their 
obedience,  but  it  wells  up  from  the  depths  of  His  own 
heart,  because  '  it  is  His  nature  and  property,'  and  if  I 
may  so  say.  He  cannot  help  loving.  You  do  not  need 
to  pump  up  that  great  affection  by  any  machinery  of 
obedience  and  of  merits ;  it  rises  like  the  water  in  an 
Artesian  well,  of  its  own  impulse,  with  ebullient  power 
from  the  central  heat,  and  spreads  its  great  streams 
everywhere.  And  therefore,  though  our  sin  may  awfully 
disturb  our  relations  with  God,  and  may  hurt  and  harm 
us  in  a  hundred  ways,  there  is  one  thing  it  cannot  do,  it 
cannot  stop  Him  from  loving  us.  It  cannot  dam  back 
His  great  love,  which  flows  out  for  ever  towards  all  His 
creatures,  and  laves  them  all  in  its  gentle,  strong  flood, 
from  which  nothing  can  draw  them  away.  '  In  Him  we 
live,  and  move,  and  have  our  being,'  and  to  live  in  Him, 
whatever  else  it  may  mean — and  it  means  a  great  deal 
more — is  most  certainly  to  live  in  His  love.  A  man  can 
as  soon  pass  out  of  the  atmosphere  in  which  he  breathes 
as  he  can  pass  out  of  the  love  of  God.  We  can  no  more 
travel  beyond  that  great  over-arching  firmament  of 


V.22]  NO  DIFFERENCE  57 

everlasting  love  which  spans  all  the  universe  than  a 
star  set  in  the  blue  heavens  can  transcend  the  liquid 
arch  and  get  beyond  its  range.  •  There  is  no  difference' 
in  the  fact  that  all  men,  unthankful  and  evil  as  they  are, 
are  grasped  and  held  in  the  love  of  God. 

But  there  is  a  difference.  Sin  cannot  dam  God's  love 
back,  but  sin  has  a  terrible  power  in  reference  to  the 
love  of  God.  Two  things  it  can  do.  It  can  make  us 
incapable  of  receiving  the  highest  blessings  of  that  love. 
There  are  many  mercies  which  God  pours  'upon  the 
unthankful  and  the  evil.'  These  are  His  least  gifts ; 
His  highest  and  best  cannot  be  given  to  the  unthankful 
and  the  evil.  They  would  if  they  could,  but  they  cannot, 
because  they  cannot  be  received  by  them.  You  can  shut 
the  shutters  against  the  light ;  you  can  close  the  vase 
against  the  stream.  You  cannot  prevent  its  shining, 
you  cannot  prevent  its  flowing,  but  you  can  prevent 
yourself  from  receiving  its  loftiest  and  best  blessings. 

And  another  awful  power  that  my  sin  has  in  reference 
to  God's  love  is,  that  it  can  modify  the  form  which 
God's  love  takes  in  its  dealings  with  me.  We  may 
force  Him  to  do  '  His  work,'  '  His  strange  work,'  as 
Isaiah  calls  it,  and  to  punish  when  He  would  fain  only 
succour  and  comfort  and  bless.  Just  as  a  fog  in  the 
sky  does  not  touch  the  sun,  but  turns  it  to  our  eyes  into 
a  fiery  ball,  red  and  lurid,  so  the  mist  of  my  sin  coming 
between  me  and  God,  may,  to  my  apprehension  and  to 
my  capacity  of  reception,  solemnly  make  different  that 
great  love  of  His.  But  yet  there  is  no  difference  in  the 
fact  of  God's  love  to  us. 

III.  Thirdly,  there  is  no  difference  in  the  purpose  and 
power  of  Christ's  Cross  for  us  all. 

*  He  died  for  all.'  The  area  over  which  the  purpose 
and  the  power  of  Christ's  death  extend  is   precisely 


58  EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS    [ch.  iii. 

conterminous  with  the  area  over  which  the  power  of 
sin  extends.  It  cannot  be — blessed  be  God  ! — that  the 
raven  Sin  shall  fly  further  than  the  dove  with  the 
olive  branch  in  its  mouth.  It  cannot  be  that  the 
disease  shall  go  wider  than  the  cure.  And  so,  dear 
friends,  I  have  to  come  to  you  now  with  this  message. 
No  matter  what  a  man  is,  how  far  he  has  gone,  how 
sinful  he  has  been,  how  long  he  has  stayed  away  from 
the  sweetness  and  grace  of  that  great  sacrifice  on  the 
Cross,  that  death  was  for  him.  The  power  of  Christ's 
sacrifice  makes  possible  the  forgiveness  of  all  the  sins 
of  all  the  world,  past,  present,  and  to  come.  The  worth 
of  that  sacrifice,  which  was  made  by  the  willing  sur- 
render of  the  Incarnate  Son  of  God  to  the  death  of  the 
Cross,  is  sufficient  for  the  ransom  price  of  all  the  sins 
of  all  men. 

Nor  is  it  only  the  power  of  the  Cross  which  is  all 
embracing,  but  its  purpose  also.  In  the  very  hour  of 
Christ's  death,  there  stood,  clear  and  distinct,  before 
His  divine  omniscience,  each  man,  woman,  and  child 
of  the  race.  And  for  them  all,  grasping  them  all  in  the 
tenderness  of  His  sympathy  and  in  the  clearness  of 
His  knowledge,  in  the  design  of  His  sufferings  for  them 
all.  He  died,  so  that  every  human  being  may  lay  his 
hand  on  the  head  of  the  sacrifice,  and  know  '  his  guilt 
was  there,'  and  may  say,  with  as  triumphant  and 
appropriating  faith  as  Paul  did,  '  He  loved  me,'  and  in 
that  hour  of  agony  and  love  '  gave  Himself  for  me.' 

To  go  back  to  a  metaphor  already  employed,  the 
prisoners  are  gathered  together  in  the  prison,  not  that 
they  may  be  slain,  but  'God  hath  included  them  all,' 
shut  them  all  up,  *  that  He  might  have  mercy  upon  all.' 
And  so,  as  it  was  in  the  days  of  Christ's  life  upon  earth, 
so  is  it  now,  and  so  will  it  be  for  ever.     All  the  crowd 


V.22]  NO  DIFFERENCE  59 

may  come  to  Him,  and  whosoever  comes  '  is  made  whole 
of  whatsoever  disease  he  had.'  There  are  no  incurables 
nor  outcasts.    '  There  is  no  difference.' 

IV.  Lastly,  there  is  no  difference  in  the  way  which 
we  must  take  for  salvation. 

The  only  thing  that  unites  men  to  Jesus  Christ  is 
faith.  You  must  trust  Him,  you  must  trust  the  power 
of  His  sacrifice,  you  must  trust  the  might  of  His  living 
love.  You  must  trust  Him  with  a  trust  which  is  self- 
distrust.  You  must  trust  Him  out  and  out.  The  people 
with  whom  Paul  is  fighting,  in  this  chapter,  were  quite 
willing  to  admit  that  faith  was  the  thing  that  made 
Christians,  but  they  wanted  to  tack  on  something  be- 
sides. They  wanted  to  tack  on  the  rites  of  Judaism  and 
obedience  to  the  moral  law.  And  ever  since  men  have 
been  going  on  in  that  erroneous  rut.  Sometimes  it  has 
been  that  people  have  sought  to  add  a  little  of  their 
own  morality ;  sometimes  to  add  ceremonies  and  sacra- 
ments. Sometimes  it  has  been  one  thing  and  some- 
times it  has  been  another ;  but  there  are  not  two  ways 
to  the  Cross  of  Christ,  and  to  the  salvation  which  Ho 
gives.  There  is  only  one  road,  and  all  sorts  of  men 
have  to  come  by  it.  You  cannot  lean  half  upon  Christ 
and  half  upon  yourselves,  like  the  timid  cripple  that  is 
not  quite  sure  of  the  support  of  the  friendly  arm.  You 
cannot  eke  out  the  robe  with  which  He  will  clothe  you 
with  a  little  bit  of  stuff  of  your  own  weaving.  It  is  an 
insult  to  a  host  to  offer  to  pay  for  entertainment. 
The  Gospel  feast  that  Christ  provides  is  not  a  social 
meal  to  which  every  guest  brings  a  dish.  Our  part  is 
simple  reception,  we  have  to  bring  empty  hands  if  we 
would  receive  the  blessing. 

We  must  put  away  superficial  differences.  The 
Gospel  is  for  the  world,  therefore  the  act  by  which  we 


60  EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS   [ch.  hi. 

receive  it  must  be  one  which  all  men  can  perform,  not 
one  which  only  some  can  do.  Not  wisdom,  nor  right- 
eousness, but  faith  joins  us  to  Christ.  And,  therefore, 
people  who  fancy  themselves  wise  or  righteous  are 
offended  that  *  special  terms '  are  not  made  with  them. 
They  would  prefer  to  have  a  private  portion  for  them- 
selves. It  grates  against  the  pride  of  the  aristocratic 
class,  whether  it  be  aristocratic  by  culture — and  that 
is  the  most  aristocratic  of  all — or  by  position,  or  any- 
thing else — it  grates  against  their  pride  to  be  told : 
*  You  have  to  go  in  by  that  same  door  that  the  beggar 
is  going  in  at ' ;  and  '  there  is  no  difference.'  Therefore, 
the  very  width  of  the  doorway,  that  is  wide  enough  for 
all  the  world,  gets  to  be  thought  narrowness,  and 
becomes  a  hindrance  to  our  entering.  As  Naaman's 
servant  put  a  common-sense  question  to  him,  so  may  I 
to  you.  '  If  the  prophet  had  bid  thee  do  some  great 
thing,  wouldest  thou  not  have  done  it?'  Ay!  that  you 
would !  '  How  much  more  when  He  says  "  Wash  and 
be  clean ! " '  There  is  only  one  way  of  getting  dirt  off, 
and  that  is  by  water.  There  is  only  one  way  of  getting 
sin  off,  and  that  is  by  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ.  There 
is  only  one  way  of  having  that  blood  applied  to  your 
heart,  and  that  is  trusting  Him.  '  The  common  salva- 
tion' becomes  ours  when  we  exercise  'the  common 
faith.'  'There  is  no  difference'  in  our  sins.  Thank 
God !  '  there  is  no  difference  '  in  the  fact  that  He  grasps 
us  with  His  love.  There  is  no  difference  in  the  fact 
that  Jesus  Christ  has  died  for  us  all.  Let  there  be  no 
difference  in  our  faith,  or  there  will  be  a  difference, 
deep  as  the  difference  between  Heaven  and  Hell ;  the 
difference  between  them  that  believe  and  them  that  be- 
lieve not,  which  will  darken  and  widen  into  the  differ- 
ence between  them  that  are  saved  and  them  that  perish. 


«LET  US  HAVE  PEACE 

•Let  us  have  peace  with  God  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.* 

Romans  v.  i.  (R.V.). 

In  the  rendering  of  the  Revised  Version,  '  Let  us  have 
peace  with  God  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,'  the 
alteration  is  very  slight,  being  that  of  one  letter  in  one 
word,  the  substitution  of  a  long  'o'  for  a  short  one. 
The  majority  of  manuscripts  of  authority  read  'let  us 
have,'  making  the  clause  an  exhortation  and  not  a 
statement.  I  suppose  the  reason  why,  in  some  inferior 
MSS.,  the  statement  takes  the  place  of  the  exhortation 
is  because  it  was  felt  to  be  somewhat  of  a  difficulty  to 
understand  the  Apostle's  course  of  thought.  But  I 
shall  hope  to  show  you  that  the  true  understanding  of 
the  context,  as  well  as  of  the  words  I  have  taken 
for  my  text,  requires  the  exhortation  and  not  the 
affirmation. 

One  more  remark  of  an  introductory  character:  is  it 
not  very  beautiful  to  see  how  the  Apostle  here  identi- 
fies himself,  in  all  humility,  with  the  Christians  whom 
he  is  addressing,  and  feels  that  he,  Apostle  as  he  is, 
has  the  same  need  for  the  same  counsel  and  stimulus 
that  the  weakest  of  those  to  whom  he  is  writing  have  ? 
It  would  have  been  so  easy  for  him  to  isolate  himself, 
and  say,  '  Now  you  have  peace  with  God ;  see  that  you 
keep  it.'  But  he  puts  himself  into  the  same  class  as 
those  whom  he  is  exhorting,  and  that  is  what  all  of 
us  have  to  do  who  would  give  advice  that  will  be 
worth  anything  or  of  any  effect.  He  does  not  stand 
upon  a  little  molehill  of  superiority,  and  look  down 
upon  the  Roman  Christians,  and  imply  that  they  have 

61 


02  EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS     [ch.  v. 

needs  that  he  has  not,  but  he  exhorts  himself  too, 
saying, '  Let  all  of  us  who  have  obtained  like  precious 
faith,  which  is  alike  in  an  Apostle  and  in  the  humblest 
believer,  have  peace  with  God.' 

Now  a  word,  first,  about  the  meaning  of  this  some- 
what singular  exhortation. 

There  is  a  theory  of  man  and  his  relation  to  God 
underlying  it,  which  is  very  unfashionable  at  present, 
but  which  corresponds  to  the  deepest  things  in  human 
nature,  and  the  deepest  mysteries  in  human  history, 
and  that  is,  that  something  has  come  in  to  produce 
the  totally  unnatural  and  monstrous  fact  that  between 
God  and  man  there  is  not  amity  or  harmony.  Men, 
on  their  side,  are  alienated,  because  their  wills  are 
rebellious  and  their  aims  diverse  from  God's  purpose 
concerning  them.  And — although  it  is  an  awful  thing 
to  have  to  say,  and  one  from  which  the  sentimentalism 
of  much  modern  Christianity  weakly  recoils — on  God's 
side,  too,  the  relation  has  been  disturbed,  and  '  we  are 
by  nature  the  children  of  wrath,  even  as  others ' ;  not 
of  a  wrath  which  is  unloving,  not  of  a  wrath  which  is 
impetuous  and  passionate,  not  of  a  wrath  which  seeks 
the  hurt  of  its  objects,  but  of  a  wrath  which  is  the 
necessary  antagonism  and  recoil  of  pure  love  from 
such  creatures  as  we  have  made  ourselves  to  be.  To 
speak  as  if  the  New  Testament  taught  that  'recon- 
ciliation' was  lop-sided  —  which  would  be  a  contra- 
diction in  terms,  for  reconciliation  needs  two  to  make 
it  —  to  talk  as  if  the  New  Testament  taught  that 
reconciliation  was  only  man's  putting  aw^ay  his  false 
relation  to  God,  is,  as  I  humbly  think,  to  be  blind  to 
its  plainest  teaching.  So,  there  being  this  antagonism 
and  separation  between  God  and  man,  the  Gospel 
comes  to  deal  with  it,  and  proclaims  that  Jesus  Christ 


v.l]  *LET  US  HAVE  PEACE'  63 

has  abolished  the  enmity,  and  by  His  death  on  the 
Cross  has  become  our  peace ;  and  that  we,  by  faith  in 
that  Christ,  and  grasping  in  faith  His  death,  pass  from 
out  of  the  condition  of  hostility  into  the  condition  of 
reconciliation. 

With  this  by  way  of  basis,  let  us  come  back  to  my 
text.  It  sounds  strange;  'Therefore,  being  justified 
by  faith,  let  us  have  peace.'  '  Well,'  you  will  say, '  but 
is  not  all  that  you  have  been  saying  just  this,  that  to 
be  justified  by  faith,  to  be  declared  righteous  by  reason 
of  faith  in  Him  who  makes  us  righteous,  is  to  have 
peace  with  God  ?  Is  not  your  exhortation  an  entirely 
superfluous  one  ? '  No  doubt  that  is  what  the  old  scribe 
thought  who  originated  the  reading  which  has  crept 
into  our  Authorised  Version.  The  two  things  do  seem 
to  be  entirely  parallel.  To  be  justified  by  faith  is  a 
certain  process,  to  have  peace  with  God  is  the  insepar- 
able and  simultaneous  result  of  that  process  itself. 
But  that  is  going  rather  too  fast.  '  Being  justified  by 
faith  let  us  have  peace  with  God,'  really  is  just  this 
— see  that  you  abide  where  you  are ;  keep  what  you 
have.  The  exhortation  is  not  to  attain  peace,  but 
retain  it.  '  Hold  fast  that  thou  hast ;  let  no  man  take 
thy  crown.'  'Being  justified  by  faith'  cling  to  your 
treasure  and  let  nothing  rob  you  of  it — 'let  us  have 
peace  with  God.' 

Now  a  word,  in  the  next  place,  as  to  the  necessity 
and  importance  of  this  exhortation. 

There  underlies  it,  this  solemn  thought,  which  Chris- 
tian people,  and  especially  some  types  of  Christian 
doctrine,  do  need  to  have  hammered  into  them  over 
and  over  again,  that  we  hold  the  blessed  life  itself, 
and  all  its  blessings,  only  on  condition  of  our  own  co- 
operation in  keeping  them ;  and  that  just  as  physical 


64  EPISTLE  to  THE  ROMANS      [ch.  v. 

life  dies,  unless  by  reception  of  food  we  nourish  and 
continue  it,  so  a  man  ohat  is  in  this  condition  of  being 
justified  by  faith,  and  having  peace  with  God,  needs,  in 
order  to  the  permanpnce  of  that  condition,  to  give  his 
utmost  effort  and  liligence.  It  will  all  go  if  he  do 
not.  All  the  old  state  will  come  back  again  if  we  are 
slothful  and  negligent.  We  cannot  keep  the  treasure 
unless  we  guard  it.  And  just  because  we  have  it, 
we  need  to  put  all  our  mind,  the  earnestness  of  our 
will,  and  the  coni^entration  of  our  efforts,  into  the 
specific  work  of  retaining  it. 

For,  consider  how  manifold  and  strong  are  the  forces 
which  are  always  working  against  our  continual 
possession  of  tb^s  justification  by  faith,  and  consequent 
peace  with  God.  There  are  all  the  ordinary  cares  and 
duties  and  avocations  and  fortunes  of  our  daily  life, 
which,  indeed,  may  be  so  hallowed  in  their  motives 
and  in  their  activities,  as  that  they  may  be  turned 
into  helps  instead  of  hindrances,  but  which  require  a 
great  deal  of  diligence  and  effort  in  order  that  they 
should  not  work  like  grains  of  dust  that  come  between 
the  parts  of  some  nicely-fitting  engine,  and  so  cause 
friction  and  disaster.  There  are  all  the  daily  tasks 
that  tempt  ^s  to  forget  the  things  that  we  only  know 
by  faith,  and  to  be  absorbed  in  the  things  that  we  can 
touch  and  taste  and  handle.  If  a  man  is  upon  an 
inclined  plane,  unless  he  is  straining  his  muscles  to  go 
upwards,  gravitation  will  make  short  work  of  him, 
and  bring"  him  down.  And  unless  Christian  men  grip 
hard  and  continually  that  sense  of  having  fellowship 
and  peace  with  God,  as  sure  as  they  are  living  they 
will  lose  the  clearness  of  that  consciousness,  and  the 
calm  that  comes  from  it.  For  we  cannot  go  into 
the  world  and  do  the  work  that  is  laid  upon  us  all 


v.l]  'LET  US  HAVE  PEACE'  65 

without  there  being  possible  hostility  to  the  Christian 
life  in  everything  that  we  meet.  Thank  God  there  is 
possible  help,  too,  and  whether  our  daily  calling  is  an 
enemy  or  a  friend  to  our  religion  depends  upon  the 
earnestness  and  continuousness  of  our  own  efforts. 
But  there  is  a  worse  force  than  these  external  dis- 
tractions working  to  draw  us  away,  one  that  we  carry 
within,  in  our  own  vacillating  wills  and  wayward 
hearts  and  treacherous  affections  and  passions  that 
usually  lie  dormant,  but  wake  up  sometimes  at  the 
most  inopportune  periods.  Unless  we  keep  a  very 
tight  hand  upon  ourselves,  certainly  these  will  rob  us 
of  this  consciousness  of  being  justified  by  faith  which 
brings  with  it  peace  with  God  that  passes  under- 
standing. 

In  the  Isle  of  Wight  massive  cliffs  rise  hundreds  of 
feet  above  the  sea,  and  seem  as  if  they  were  as  solid 
as  the  framework  of  the  earth  itself.  But  they  rest 
upon  a  sharply  inclined  plane  of  clay,  and  the  moisture 
trickles  through  the  rifts  in  the  majestic  cliffs  above, 
and  gets  down  to  that  slippery  substance  and  makes 
it  like  the  greased  ways  down  which  they  launch  a 
ship ;  and  away  goes  the  cliff  one  day,  with  its  hundreds 
of  feet  of  buttresses  that  have  fronted  the  tempest  for 
centuries,  and  it  lies  toppled  in  hideous  ruin  on  the 
beach  below.  We  have  all  a  layer  of  'blue  slipper' 
in  ourselves,  and  unless  we  take  care  that  no  storm- 
water  finds  its  way  down  through  the  chinks  in  the 
rocks  above  they  will  slide  into  awful  ruin.  'Being 
justified,  let  us  have  peace  with  God,'  and  remember 
that  the  exhortation  is  enforced  not  only  by  a  con- 
sideration of  the  many  strong  forces  which  tend  to 
deprive  us  of  this  peace,  but  also  by  a  consideration  of 
the  hideous  disaster  that  comes  upon  a  man's  whole 

B 


66  EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS     [ch.  v. 

nature  if  he  loses  peace  with  God.  For  there  is  no 
peace  with  ourselves,  and  there  is  no  peace  with  man, 
and  there  is  no  peace  in  face  of  the  warfare  of  life 
and  the  calamities  that  are  certainly  before  us  all, 
unless,  in  the  deepest  sanctuary  of  our  being,  there  is 
the  peace  of  God  because  in  our  consciences  there  is 
peace  with  God.  If  I  desire  to  be  at  rest — and  there  is 
no  blessedness  but  rest — if  I  desire  to  know  the  sovereign 
joy  of  tranquillity,  undisturbed  by  my  own  stormy 
passions  or  by  any  human  enmity,  and  to  have  even 
the  '  beasts  of  the  field  at  peace  with '  me,  and  all  things 
my  helpers  and  allies,  there  is  but  one  way  to  realise 
the  desire,  and  that  is  the  retention  of  peace  with  God 
that  comes  with  being  justified  by  faith. 

Lastly,  a  word  or  two  as  to  the  ways  by  which  this 
exhortation  can  be  carried  into  effect. 

I  have  tried  to  explain  how  the  peace  of  which  my 
text  speaks  comes  originally  through  Christ's  work 
laid  hold  of  by  my  faith,  and  now  I  would  say  only 
three  things. 

Retain  the  peace  by  the  exercise  of  that  same  faith 
which  at  first  brought  it.  Next,  retain  it  by  union 
with  that  same  Lord  from  whom  you  at  first  received 
it.  Very  significantly,  in  the  immediate  context,  we 
have  the  Apostle  drawing  a  broad  distinction  between 
the  benefits  which  we  have  received  from  Christ's 
death,  and  those  which  we  shall  receive  through  His 
life.  And  that  is  the  best  commentary  on  the  words 
of  my  text.  '  If  when  we  were  enemies,  we  were 
reconciled  to  God  by  the  death  of  His  Son,  much  more, 
being  reconciled,  we  shall  be  saved  by  His  life.'  So  let 
our  faith  grasp  firmly  the  great  twin  facts  of  the 
Christ  who  died  that  He  might  abolish  the  enmity,  and 
bring  us  peace ;  and  of  the  Christ  who  lives  in  order  that 


V.  1]  ACCESS  INTO  GRACE  67 

He  may  pour  into  our  hearts  more  and  more  of  His  own 
life,  and  so  make  us  more  and  more  in  His  own  image. 
And  the  last  word  that  I  would  say,  in  addition  to 
these  two  plain,  practical  precepts  is,  let  your  conduct 
be  such  as  will  not  disturb  your  peace  with  God.  For 
if  a  man  lets  his  own  will  rise  up  in  rebellion  against 
God's,  whether  that  divine  will  command  duty  or  im- 
pose suffering,  away  goes  all  his  peace.  There  is  no 
possibility  of  the  tranquil  sense  of  union  and  com- 
munion with  my  Father  in  heaven  lasting  when  I  am 
in  rebellion  against  Him.  The  smallest  sin  destroys, 
for  the  time  being,  our  sense  of  forgiveness  and  our 
peace  with  God.  The  blue  surface  of  the  lake,  mirror- 
ing in  its  unmoved  tranquillity  the  sky  and  the  bright 
sun,  or  the  solemn  stars,  loses  all  that  reflected  heaven 
in  its  heart  when  a  cat's  paw  of  wind  ruffles  its  surface. 
If  we  would  keep  our  hearts  as  mirrors,  in  their  peace, 
of  the  peace  in  the  heavens  that  shine  down  on  them, 
we  must  fence  them  from  the  winds  of  evil  passions 
and  rebellious  wills.  '  Oh !  that  thou  wouldest  hearken 
unto  Me,  then  had  thy  peace  been  like  a  river.' 


ACCESS  INTO  GRACE 

'  By  whom  also  we  have  access  by  faith  into  this  grace  wherein  we  stand.' 

Romans  v.  2. 

I  MAT  be  allowed  to  begin  with  a  word  or  two  of 
explanation  of  the  terms  of  this  passage.  Note  then, 
especially,  that  also  which  sends  us  back  to  the  previous 
clause,  and  tells  us  that  our  text  adds  something  to 
what  was  spoken  of  there.  What  was  spoken  of  there? 
'  The  peace  of   God '  which  comes  to  a  man  by  Jesus 


68  EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS     [ch.  v. 

Christ  through  faith,  the  removal  of  enmity,  and  the 
declaration  of  righteousness.  But  that  peace  with 
God,  which  is  the  beginning  of  everything  in  the 
Christian  view,  is  only  the  beginning,  and  there  is 
much  to  follow.  While,  then,  there  is  a  progress  clearly 
marked  in  the  words  of  our  text,  and  *  access  into  this 
grace  wherein  we  stand '  is  something  more  than,  and 
after,  the  *  peace  with  God,'  mark  next  the  similarity 
of  the  text  and  the  preceding  verse.  The  two  great 
truths  in  the  latter,  Christ's  mediation  or  intervention, 
and  our  faith  as  the  condition  by  which  we  receive  the 
blessings  which  are  brought  to  us  in  and  through  Him, 
are  both  repeated,  with  no  unmeaning  tautology,  but 
with  profound  significance  in  our  text — *  By  whom  also 
we  have  access' — as  well  as — 'the  peace  of  God' — 'access 
hy  faith  into  this  grace.'  So  then,  for  the  initial  blessing, 
and  for  all  the  subsequent  blessings  of  the  Christian 
life,  the  way  is  the  same.  The  medium  and  channel  is 
one,  and  the  act  by  which  we  avail  ourselves  of  the 
blessings  coming  through  that  one  medium  is  the  same. 
Now  the  language  of  my  text,  with  its  talking  about 
access,  faith,  and  grace,  sounds  to  a  great  many  of  us, 
I  am  afraid,  very  hard  and  remote  and  technical.  And 
there  are  not  wanting  people  who  tell  us  that  all  that 
terminology  in  the  New  Testament  is  like  a  dying 
brand  in  the  fire,  where  the  little  kernel  of  glowing 
heat  is  getting  covered  thicker  and  thicker  with  grey 
ashes.  Yes ;  but  if  you  blow  the  ashes  off,  the  fire  is 
there  all  the  same.  Let  us  try  if  we  can  blow  the 
ashes  off. 

This  text  seems  to  me  in  its  archaic  phraseology,  only 
to  need  to  be  pondered  in  order  to  flash  up  into  won- 
derful beauty.  It  carries  in  it  a  magnificent  ideal  of 
the  Christian  life,  in  three  things :  the  Christian  place, 


\t 


V.  2]  ACCESS  INTO  GRACE  69 

'access  into  grace';  the  Christian  attitude,  'wherein 
we  stand ' ;  and  the  Christian  means  of  realising  that 
ideal, '  through  Christ '  and  '  by  faith.'  Now  let  us  look 
at  these  three  points. 

I.  The  Christian  Place. 

There  is  clearly  a  metaphor  here,  both  in  the  word 
'  access '  and  in  that  other  one  •  stand.'  *  The  grace '  is 
supposed  as  some  ample  space  into  which  a  man  is 
led,  and  where  he  can  continue,  stand,  and  expatiate. 
Or,  we  may  say,  it  is  regarded  as  a  palace  or  treasure- 
house  into  which  we  can  enter.  Now,  if  we  take  that 
great  New  Testament  word  '  grace,'  and  ponder  its 
meanings,  we  find  that  they  run  something  in  this 
fashion.  The  central  thought,  grand  and  marvellous, 
which  is  enshrined  in  it,  and  which  often  is  buried  for 
careless  ears,  is  that  of  the  active  love  of  God  poured 
out  upon  inferiors  who  deserve  something  very  dif- 
ferent. Then  there  follows  a  second  meaning,  which 
covers  a  great  part  of  the  ground  of  the  use  of  the 
phrase  in  the  New  Testament,  and  that  is  the  com- 
munication of  that  love  to  men,  the  specific  and 
individualised  gifts  which  come  out  of  that  great 
reservoir  of  patient,  pardoning,  condescending,  and 
bestowing  love.  Then  there  may  be  taken  into  view  a 
meaning  which  is  less  prominent  in  Scripture  but  not 
absent,  namely,  the  resulting  beauty  of  character.  A 
gracious  soul  ought  to  be,  and  is,  a  graceful  soul;  a 
supreme  loveliness  is  imparted  to  human  nature  by 
the  communication  to  it  of  the  gifts  which  are  the 
results  of  the  undeserved,  free,  and  infinite  love  of 
God. 

Now  if  we  take  all  these  three  thoughts  as  blended 
together  in  the  grand  metaphor  of  the  Apostle,  of  the 
ample  space  into  which  the  Christian  man  passes,  we 


70  EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS     [ch.  v. 

get  such  lessons  as  this.  A  Christian  life  may,  and 
therefore  should,  be  suffused  with  a  continual  con- 
sciousness of  the  love  of  God.  That  would  change 
everything  in  it.  Here  is  some  great  sweep  of  rolling 
country,  perhaps  a  Highland  moor :  the  little  tarns  on 
it  are  grey  and  cold,  the  vegetation  is  gloomy  and  dark, 
dreariness  is  over  all  the  scene,  because  there  is  a  great 
pall  of  cloud  drawn  beneath  the  blue.  But  the  sun 
pierces  with  his  lances  through  the  grey,  and  crumples 
up  the  mists,  and  sends  them  flying  beneath  the  horizon. 
Then  what  a  change  in  the  landscape !  All  the  tarns 
that  looked  black  and  wicked  are  now  infantile  in  their 
innocent  blue  and  sunny  gladness,  and  every  dimple  in 
the  heights  shows,  and  all  the  heather  burns  with  the 
sunshine  that  falls  upon  it.  So  my  lonely  doleful  life, 
if  that  light  from  God,  the  beam  of  His  love,  shines 
down  upon  it,  rises  into  nobility,  and  flashes  into 
beauty,  and  is  calm  and  fair  and  great,  as  nothing  else 
can  make  it.  You  may  dwell  in  love  by  dwelling  in 
God,  and  then  your  lives  will  be  fair.  You  have  access 
into  the  grace;  see  that  you  go  there.  They  tell  us 
that  nightingales  sing  by  the  wayside  by  preference, 
and  we  may  have  in  our  lives,  singing  a  quiet  tune,  the 
continual  thought  of  the  love  of  God,  even  whilst  life's 
highway  is  dusty  and  rough,  and  our  feet  are  often 
weary  in  treading  it.  A  Christian  life  may  be,  and 
therefore  should  be,  suffused  with  the  sense  of  the 
abiding  love  of  God. 

Take  the  other  meaning  of  the  word,  the  secondary 
and  derived  meaning,  the  communication  of  that  love 
to  us,  and  that  leads  us  to  say  that  a  Christian  life  may, 
and  therefore  should,  be  enriched  with  continual  gifts 
from  God's  fullness.  I  said  that  the  Apostle  was  using 
a  metaphor  here,  regarding  the  grace  as  being  an  ample 


V.2]     ,  ACCESS  INTO  GRACE  71 

space  into  which  a  man  was  admitted,  or  we  may  say 
that  he  is  thinking  of  it  as  a  great  treasure-house.  We 
have  the  right  of  entrance  there,  where  on  every  side, 
as  it  were,  lie  ingots  of  uncoined  gold,  and  masses  of 
treasure,  and  we  may  have  just  as  much  or  as  little  as 
we  choose.  It  is  entirely  in  our  own  determination 
how  much  of  the  wealth  of  God  we  shall  possess.  We 
have  access  to  the  treasure-house;  and  this  permit  is 
put  into  our  hands :  '  Be  it  unto  thee  even  as  thou  wilt.' 
The  size  of  the  sack  that  the  man  brings,  in  the  old 
story,  determined  the  amount  of  wealth  that  he  carried 
away.  Some  of  you  bring  very  tiny  baskets  and  expect 
little  and  desire  little ;  you  get  no  more  than  you 
desired  and  expected. 

That  wealth,  the  fullness  of  God,  takes  the  shape  of,  as 
well  as  is  determined  in  its  rneasure  by  the  magnitude 
of,  the  vessel  into  which  it  is  put.  It  is  multiform,  and 
we  get  whatever  we  desire,  and  whatever  either  our 
characters  or  our  circumstances  require.  The  one  gift 
assumes  all  forms,  just  as  water  poured  into  a  vase 
takes  the  shape  of  the  vase  into  which  it  is  poured. 
The  same  gift  unfolds  itself  in  an  infinite  variety  of 
manners,  according  to  the  needs  of  the  man  to  whom 
it  is  given  ;  just  as  the  writer's  pen,  the  carpenter's 
hammer,  the  farmer's  ploughshare,  are  all  made  out  of 
the  same  metal.  So  God's  grace  comes  to  you  in  a 
different  shape  from  that  in  which  it  comes  to  me, 
according  to  our  different  callings  and  needs,  as  fixed 
by  our  circumstances,  our  duties,  our  sorrows,  our 
temptations. 

So,  brethren,  how  shameful  it  is  that,  having  the 
possibility  of  so  much,  we  should  have  the  actuality  of 
so  little.  There  is  an  old  story  about  one  of  our 
generals  in  India  long  ago,  who,  when  he  came  home. 


72  EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS     [ch.  v. 

was  accused  of  rapacity  because  he  had  brought  away 
so  much  treasure  from  the  Rajahs  whom  he  had 
conquered,  and  his  answer  to  the  charge  was,  'I  was 
surprised  at  my  own  moderation.'  Ah !  there  are  a 
great  many  Christian  people  who  ought  to  be  ashamed 
of  their  moderation.  They  have  gone  into  the  treasure- 
house;  stacks  of  jewels,  jars  of  gold  on  all  sides  of 
them — and  they  have  been  content  to  come  away  with 
some  one  poor  little  coin,  when  they  might  have  been 
*rich  beyond  the  dreams  of  avarice.'  Brethren,  you 
have  •  access '  to  the  fullness  of  God.  Whose  fault  is  it 
if  you  are  empty  ? 

Then,  further,  I  said  there  was  another  meaning  in 
these  great  words.  The  love  which  may  suffuse  our 
lives,  the  gifts,  the  consequence  of  that  love,  which 
may  enrich  our  lives,  should,  and  in  the  measure  in 
which  they  are  received  will,  adorn  and  make  beautiful 
our  lives.  For  'grace'  means  loveliness  as  well  as 
goodness,  and  the  God  who  is  the  fountain  of  it  all  is 
the  fountain  of  *  whatsoever  things  are  fair,'  as  well  as 
of  whatsoever  things  are  good.  That  suggests  two  con- 
siderations on  which  I  have  no  time  to  dwell.  One  is 
that  the  highest  beauty  is  goodness,  and  unless  the  art 
of  a  nation  learns  that,  its  art  will  become  filthy  and  a 
minister  of  sin.  They  talk  about  '  Art  for  Art's  sake.' 
Would  that  all  these  poets  and  painters  who  are  trying 
to  find  beauty  in  corruption— and  there  is  a  phosphor- 
escent glimmer  in  rotting  wood,  and  a  prismatic  colour- 
ing on  the  scum  of  a  stagnant  pond — would  that  all 
those  men  who  are  seeking  to  find  beauty  apart  from 
goodness,  and  so  are  turning  a  divine  instinct  into  a 
servant  of  evil,  would  learn  that  the  true  gracefulness 
comes  from  the  grace  which  is  the  fullness  of  God  given 
unto  men. 


V.2]  ACCESS  INTO  GRACE  73 

But  there  is  another  lesson,  and  that  is  that  Christian 
people  who  say  that  they  have  their  lives  irradiated  by 
the  love  of  God,  and  who  profess  to  be  receiving  gifts 
from  His  full  hand,  are  bound  to  take  care  that  their 
goodness  is  not  *  harsh  and  crabbed,'  as  not  only  '  dull 
fools  suppose'  it  to  be,  but  as  it  sometimes  is,  but  is 
musical  and  fair.  You  are  bound  to  make  your  good- 
ness attractive,  and  to  show  that  the  things  that  are 
*  of  good  report '  are  likewise  the  '  things  that  are 
lovely.' 

II.  And  so,  now,  turn  to  the  second  point  here,  viz. 
the  Christian  attitude. 

•The  grace  wherein  ye  stand';  that  word  is  very 
emphatic  here,  and  does  not  merely  mean  'continue,' 
but  it  suggests  what  I  have  put  into  that  phrase,  the 
Christian  attitude. 

Two  things  are  implied.  One  is  that  a  life  thus 
suffused  by  the  love,  and  enriched  by  the  gifts,  and 
adorned  by  the  loveliness  that  come  from  God,  will  be 
stable  and  steadfast.  Resistance  and  stability  are 
implied  in  the  words.  One  very  important  item  in 
determining  a  man's  power  of  resistance,  and  of 
standing  firm  against  whatever  assaults  may  be  hurled 
against  him,  is  the  sort  of  footing  that  he  has.  If  you 
stand  on  slippery  mud,  or  on  the  ice  of  a  glacier,  you 
will  find  it  hard  to  stand  firm ;  but  if  you  plant  your 
foot  on  the  grace  of  God,  then  you  will  be  able  to 
'  withstand  in  the  evil  day,  and  having  done  all  to 
stand.'  And  how  does  a  man  plant  his  foot  on  the 
grace  of  God?  simply  by  trusting  in  God,  and  not  in 
himself.  So  that  the  secret  of  all  steadfastness  of  life, 
and  of  all  successful  resistance  to  the  whirling  onrush 
of  temptations  and  of  difficulties,  is  to  set  your  foot  upon 
that  rock,  and  then  your  '  goings '  will  be  established. 


74  EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS     [ch.  v. 

Jesus  Christ  brings  to  us,  in  the  gift  of  life  in  Him, 
stability  which  will  check  the  vacillations  of  our  own 
hearts.  We  go  up  and  down,  we  yield  when  pressure 
is  brought  to  bear  against  us,  we  are  carried  off  our 
feet  often  by  the  sudden  swirl  of  the  stream,  and  the 
jfitful  blast  of  the  wind.  But  His  grace  comes  in,  and 
will  make  us  able  to  stand  against  all  assaults.  Our 
poor  natures,  necessarily  changeable,  and  sinfully 
vacillating  and  weak,  will  be  uniform,  in  the  measure 
in  which  the  grace  of  God  comes  into  our  hearts.  Just 
as  in  these  so-called  petrifying  wells,  they  take  a  bit  of 
cloth,  a  bird's  nest,  a  billet  of  wood,  and  plunge  it  into 
the  water,  and  the  mineral  held  in  solution  there 
infiltrates  into  the  substance  of  the  thing  plunged  in, 
and  makes  it  firm  and  inflexible :  so  let  us  plunge  our 
poor,  changeful,  vacillating  resolutions,  our  wayward, 
wandering  hearts,  our  passions,  so  easily  excited  by 
temptation,  into  that  great  fountain,  and  there  will 
filter  into  our  flexibility  what  will  make  it  firm,  and 
into  our  changef ulness  what  will  give  in  us  some  faint 
copy  of  the  divine  immutability,  and  we  shall  stand 
fast  in  the  Lord  and  in  the  power  of  His  might. 

Further,  in  regard  to  this  attitude,  which  is  the  result 
of  the  possession  of  grace,  we  may  say  that  it  indicates 
not  only  stability  and  steadfastness,  but  erectness,  as 
in  opposition  to  crouching  or  bowing.  A  man's  inde- 
pendence is  guaranteed  by  his  dependence  upon,  and 
his  possession  of,  that  communicated  grace  of  God. 
And  so  you  have  the  fact  that  the  phase  of  the  Christian 
teaching  which  has  laid  most  stress  on  the  decrees  and 
sovereign  will  of  God,  on  divine  grace  in  fact,  and  too 
little  upon  the  human  side — the  phase  which  is  roughly 
described  as  Calvinism — has  underlain  the  liberties  of 
Europe,  and  has  stiffened  men  into  the  rejection  of  all 


V.2]  ACCESS  INTO  GRACE  75 

priestly  and  civic  domination.  'Where  the  Spirit  of 
the  Lord  is,  there  is  liberty,'  and  if  a  man  has  in  his 
heart  the  grace  of  God,  then  he  stands  erect  as  a  man. 
'  Ye  are  bought  with  a  price ;  be  ye  not  the  servants  of 
men.'  The  Christian  democracy,  the  Christian  rejec- 
tion of  all  sacerdotal  and  other  domination,  flows  from 
the  access  of  each  individual  Christian  to  the  fountain 
of  all  wisdom,  the  only  source  of  law  and  command, 
the  inspirer  of  all  strength,  the  giver  of  all  grace.  By 
faith  ye  stand.  '  Stand  fast  therefore  in  the  liberty 
wherewith  Christ  has  made  you  free.' 

III.  Lastly,  and  only  a  word ;  we  have  here  the 
Christian  way  of  entrance  into  grace. 

I  have  already  remarked  on  the  emphasis  with 
which,  both  in  my  text  and  in  the  preceding  clause, 
there  are  laid  down  the  two  conditions  of  possessing 
this  grace,  or  the  peace  which  precedes  it :  '  By  Christ 
— through  faith.'  Notice,  too,  that  Jesus  Christ  gives 
us  'access.'  Now^  that  expression  is  but  an  imperfect 
rendering  of  the  original.  If  it  were  not  for  its 
trivial  associations,  one  might  read  instead  of  'access,' 
introduction,  'by  whom  we  have  introduction  into 
this  grace  wherein  we  stand.'  The  thought  is  that 
Jesus  Christ  secures  us  entry  into  this  ample  space,  this 
treasure-house,  as  some  court  officer  might  take  by  the 
the  hand  a  poor  rustic,  standing  on  the  threshold  of  the 
palace,  and  lead  him  through  all  the  glittering  series 
of  unfamiliar  splendour,  and  present  him  at  last  in  the 
central  ring  around  the  king.  The  reality  that  under- 
lies the  metaphor  is  plain.  We  sinners  can  never  pass 
into  that  central  glory,  nor  ever  possess  those  gifts  of 
grace,  unless  the  barrier  that  stands  between  us  and 
God,  between  us  and  His  highest  gifts  of  love,  is  swept 
away. 


76  EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS     [ch.  v. 

I  recall  an  old  legend  where  two  knights  are  repre- 
sented as  seeking  to  enter  a  palace,  where  there  is  a 
mysterious  fire  burning  in  the  middle  of  the  portal. 
One  of  them  tries  to  pass  through,  and  recoils  scorched ; 
but  when  the  other  essays  an  entrance  the  fierce  fire 
sinks,  and  the  path  is  cleared.  Jesus  Christ  has  died, 
and  I  say  it  with  all  reverence,  as  His  blood  touches 
the  fire  it  flickers  down  and  the  way  is  opened  'into 
the  holiest  of  all,  whither  the  Forerunner  is  for  us 
entered.'  He  both  brings  the  grace  and  makes  it 
possible  that  we  should  go  in  where  the  grace  is. 

But  Jesus  Christ's  work  is  nothing  to  you  unless 
your  personal  faith  comes  in,  and  so  that  is  pointed  to 
in  the  second  of  the  clauses  here :  *  By  faith  we  have 
access.'  That  is  no  arbitrary  appointment.  It  lies  in 
the  very  nature  of  the  gift  and  of  the  recipient.  How 
can  God  give  access  into  that  grace  to  a  man  who 
shrinks  from  being  near  Him;  who  does  not  want 
*  access,'  and  who  could  not  use  the  grace  if  he  had  it  ? 
How  can  God  bestow  inward  and  spiritual  gifts  upon 
any  man  who  closes  his  heart  against  them,  and  will 
not  have  them  ?  My  faith  is  the  condition ;  Christ  is 
the  Giver.  If  I  ally  myself  to  Him  by  my  faith.  He 
gives  to  me.  If  I  do  not,  with  all  the  will  to  do  it.  He 
cannot  bestow  His  best  gifts  any  more  than  a  man  who 
stretches  out  his  hand  to  another  sinking  in  the  flood 
can  lift  him  out,  and  set  him  on  the  safe  shore,  if  the 
drowning  man's  hand  is  not  stretched  out  to  grasp  the 
rescuer's  outstretched  hand. 

Brethren,  God  is  infinitely  willing  to  give  the 
choicest  gifts  of  His  love  to  us  all,  to  gladden,  to 
enrich,  to  adorn,  to  make  stable  and  erect.  But  He 
cannot  give  them  unless  you  will  trust  Him.  '  It  pleased 
the  Father   that   in   Him   should    all    fullness  dwell.' 


V.2]  THE  SOURCES  OF  HOPE  77 

That  alabaster  box  is  brought  to  earth.  It  was  broken 
on  the  Cross  that  *  the  house '  might  be  '  filled  with  the 
odour  of  the  ointment.'  Our  faith  is  the  only  condition ; 
it  is  only  the  condition,  but  it  is  the  indispensable 
condition,  of  our  being  anointed  with  that  fragrant 
anointing.  He,  and  He  only,  can  give  us  the  fullness  of 
God. 


THE  SOURCES  OF  HOPE 

•  We  rejoice  in  hope  of  the  glory  of  God.  3.  And  not  only  so,  bub  we  glory  in 
tribulations  also :  knowing  that  tribulation  worketh  patience  ;  i.  And  patience, 
experience ;  and  experience,  hope.'— Romans  v.  2-4. 

We  have  seen  in  a  previous  sermon  that  the  Apostle  in 
the  foregoing  context  is  sketching  a  grand  outline  of 
the  ideal  Christian  life,  as  all  rooted  in  *  being  justified 
by  faith,'  and  flowering  into  '  peace  with  God,'  '  access 
into  grace,'  and  a  firm  stand  against  all  antagonists 
and  would-be  masters.  In  our  text  he  advances  to 
complete  the  outline  by  sketching  the  true  Christian 
attitude  towards  the  future.  I  have  ventured  to  take 
so  pregnant  and  large  a  text,  because  there  is  a  very 
striking  and  close  connection  throughout  the  verses, 
which  is  lost  unless  we  take  them  together.  Note, 
then,  *we  rejoice  in  hope,'  *we  glory  in  tribulation.* 
Now,  it  is  one  word  in  the  original  which  is  diversely 
rendered  in  these  two  clauses  by  '  rejoice  '  and  *  glory.' 
The  latter  is  a  better  rendering  than  the  former,  be- 
cause the  original  expression  designates  not  only  the 
emotion  of  joy,  but  the  expression  of  it,  especially  in 
words.  So  it  is  frequently  rendered  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment by  the  word  'boast,'  which,  of  course,  has  un- 
pleasant associations,  which  scarcely  fit  it  for  use  here. 
So  then  you  see  Paul  regards  it  as  possible  for,  and 


78  EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS     [ch.  v. 

more  than  possibly  characteristic  of,  a  Christian,  that 
the  very  same  emotion  should  be  excited  by  that  great 
bright  future  hope,  and  by  the  blackness  of  present 
sorrow.  That  is  strong  meat;  and  so  he  goes  on  to 
explain  how  he  thinks  it  can  and  must  be  so,  and  points 
out  that  trouble,  through  a  series  of  results,  arrives  at 
last  at  this,  that  if  it  is  rightly  borne,  it  flashes  up 
into  greater  brightness  the  hope  which  has  grasped 
the  glory  of  God.  So  then  we  have  here,  not  only  a 
wonderful  designation  of  the  object  around  which 
Christian  hope  twines  its  tendrils,  but  of  the  double 
source  from  which  that  hope  may  come,  and  of  the 
one  emotion  with  which  Christian  people  should  front 
the  darkness  of  the  present  and  the  brightness  of  the 
future.  Ah !  how  different  our  lives  would  be  if  that 
ideal  of  a  steadfast  hope  and  an  untroubled  joy  were 
realised  by  each  of  us.  It  may  be.  It  should  be.  So 
I  ask  you  to  look  at  these  three  points  which  I  have 
suggested. 

I.  That  wonderful  designation  of  the  one  object  of 
Christian  hope  which  should  fill,  with  an  uncorusca- 
ting  and  unflickering  light,  all  that  dark  future. 

*  We  rejoice  in  hope  of  the  glory  of  God.'  Now,  I  sup- 
pose I  need  not  remind  you  that  that  phrase  '  the  glory 
of  God '  is,  in  the  Old  Testament,  used  especially  to  mean 
the  light  that  dwelt  between  the  cherubim  above  the 
mercy-seat;  the  symbol  of  the  divine  perfections  and 
the  token  of  the  Divine  Presence.  The  reality  of  which 
it  was  a  symbol  is  the  total  splendour,  so  to  speak,  of 
that  divine  nature,  as  it  rays  itself  out  into  all  the 
universe.  And,  says  Paul,  the  true  hope  of  the 
Christian  man  is  nothing  less  than  that  of  that  glory 
he  shall  be,  in  some  true  sense,  and  in  an  eternally 
growing  degree,  the  real  possessor.    It  is  a  tremendous 


vs.  2-4]        THE  SOURCES  OF  HOPE  79 

claim,  and  one  which  leads  us  into  deep  places  that 
I  dare  not  venture  into  now,  as  to  the  resemblance 
between  the  human  person  and  the  Divine  Person, 
notwithstanding  all  the  difPerences  which  of  course 
exist,  and  which  only  a  presumptuous  form  of  re- 
ligion has  ventured  to  treat  as  transitory  or  insignifi- 
cant. Let  me  use  a  technical  word,  and  say  that  it 
is  no  pantheistic  absorption  in  an  impersonal  Light, 
no  Nirvana  of  union  with  a  vague  whole,  which  the 
Apostle  holds  out  here,  but  it  is  the  closest  possible 
union,  personality  being  saved  and  individual  con- 
sciousness being  intensified.  It  is  the  clothing  of 
humanity  with  so  much  of  that  glory  as  can  be  im- 
parted to  a  finite  creature.  That  means  perfect 
knowledge,  perfect  purity,  perfect  love,  and  that  means 
the  dropping  away  of  all  weaknesses  and  the  access  of 
strange  new  powers,  and  that  means  the  end  of  the 
schism  between  •  will '  and  *  ought,'  and  of  the  other 
schism  between  '  will '  and  *  can.'  It  means  what  this 
Apostle  says :  '  Whom  He  justified  them  He  also  glori- 
fied,' and  what  He  says  again,  '  We  all,  beholding  as  in 
a  glass '  —  or  rather,  perhaps,  mirroring  as  a  glass 
does — '  the  glory,  are  changed  into  the  same  image.' 

The  very  heart  of  Christianity  is  that  the  Divine 
Light  of  which  that  Shekinah  was  but  a  poor  and 
transitory  symbol  has  '  tabernacled '  amongst  men  in 
the  Christ,  and  has  from  Him  been  communicated,  and 
is  being  communicated  in  such  measure  as  earthly 
limitations  and  conditions  permit,  and  that  these  do 
point  on  assuredly  to  perfect  impartation  hereafter, 
when  *  we  shall  be  like  Him,  for  we  shall  see  Him  as 
He  is.'  The  Three  could  walk  in  the  furnace  of  fire, 
because  there  was  One  with  them,  '  like  unto  the  Son 
of  God.'    '  Who  among  us  shall  dwell  with  the  ever- 


80  EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS     [ch.  v. 

lasting  fire,'  the  fire  of  that  divine  perfection?  They 
who  have  had  introduction  by  Christ  into  the  grace, 
and  who  will  be  led  by  Him  into  the  glory. 

Now,  brethren,  it  seems  to  me  to  be  of  great  im- 
portance that  this,  the  loftiest  of  conceptions  of  that 
future  life,  should  be  the  main  aspect  under  which  we 
think  of  it.  It  is  well  to  speak  of  rest  from  toil ;  it  is 
well  to  speak  of  all  the  negations  of  present  unfavour- 
able, afflictive  conditions  which  that  future  presents 
to  us.  And  perhaps  there  is  none  of  the  aspects  of 
it  which  appeals  to  deeper  feelings  in  ourselves,  than 
those  which  say  '  there  shall  be  no  night  there,'  '  there 
shall  be  no  tears  there,  neither  sorrow  nor  sighing*; 
'  there  shall  be  no  toil  there.'  But  we  must  rise  above 
all  that,  for  our  heaven  is  to  live  in  God,  and  to  be 
possessors  of  His  glory.  Do  not  let  us  dwell  upon  the 
symbols  instead  of  the  realities.  Do  not  let  us  dwell 
only  on  the  oppositions  and  contradictions  to  earth. 
Let  us  rather  rise  high  above  symbols,  high  above 
negations,  to  the  positive  truth,  and  not  contented 
with  saying  •  We  shall  be  full  of  blessedness ;  we  shall 
be  full  of  purity ;  we  shall  be  full  of  knowledge,'  let  us 
rather  think  of  that  which  embraces  them  all— we 
shall  be  full  of  God. 

So  much,  then,  for  the  one  object  of  Christian  hope. 
We  have  here — 

II.  The  double  source  of  that  hope. 

Observe  that  the  first  clause  of  my  text  comes  as  the 
last  term  in  a  sequence.  It  began  with  *  being  justified 
by  faith.'  The  second  round  of  the  ladder  was,  'we 
have  peace  with  God.'  The  third,  •  we  have  access  into 
this  grace.'  The  fourth,  'we  stand,'  and  then  comes, 
•  we  rejoice  in  hope  of  the  glory  of  God.'  That  is  to 
say,  to  put   it  into  general  words,  and,  of  course,  pre- 


vs.  2-4]        THE  SOURCES  OF  HOPE  81 

supposing  the  revelation  in  Jesus  Christ  as  the  basis  of 
all,  without  which  there  is  no  assured  hope  of  a  future 
beyond  the  grave,  then  the  facts  of  a  Christian  man's 
life  are  for  him  the  best  brighteners  of  the  hope 
beyond.  Of  course,  that  is  so.  'Justified  by  faith' — 
•peace  with  God' — 'access  into  grace';  what,  in  the 
name  of  common-sense,  can  death  do  with  these  things? 
How  can  its  blunted  sword  cut  the  bond  that  unites  a 
soul  that  has  had  such  experiences  as  these  with  the 
source  of  them  all  ?  Nothing  can  be  more  grotesque, 
nothing  more  incongruous,  than  to  think  that  that 
subordinate  and  accidental  fact,  whose  region  is  the 
physical,  has  anything  whatever  to  do  with  this  higher 
region  of  consciousness. 

And,  further  than  that,  it  is  absolutely  unthinkable 
to  a  man  in  the  possession  of  these  spiritual  gifts,  that 
they  should  ever  come  to  a  close  ;  and  the  fact  that  in 
the  precise  degree  in  which  we  realise  as  our  very  own 
possession,  here  and  now,  these  Christian  emotions  and 
blessings,  we  instinctively  rise  to  the  belief  that  they 
are  •  not  for  an  age,  but  for  all  time,'  and  not  for  all 
time,  but  for  eternity,  is  itself,  if  not  a  proof,  yet  a  very 
strong  presumption,  if  you  believe  in  God,  that  a  man 
who  thus  '  feels  he  was  not  made  to  die  '  because  he  has 
grasped  the  Eternal,  is  right  in  so  feeling.  If,  too,  we 
look  at  the  experiences  themselves,  they  all  have  the 
stamp  of  incompleteness,  and  suggest  completeness  by 
their  own  incompleteness.  The  new  moon  with  its 
ragged  edge  not  more  surely  prophesies  its  completed 
silver  round,  than  do  the  experiences  of  the  Christian 
life  here,  in  their  greatness  and  in  their  smallness, 
declare  that  there  come  a  time  and  an  order  of  things 
in  which  what  was  thwarted  tendency  shall  be  accom- 
plished result.    The  tender  green  spikelet,  pushing  up 

F 


82  EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS     [ch.v. 

through  the  brown  clods,  does  not  more  surely 
prophesy  the  waving  yellow  ear,  nor  the  broad  high- 
way on  which  a  man  comes  in  the  wilderness  more 
surely  declare  that  there  is  a  village  at  the  end  of  it, 
than  do  the  facts  of  the  Christian  life,  here  and  now, 
attest  the  validity  of  the  hope  of  the  glory  of  God. 

And  so,  brethren,  if  you  wish  to  brighten  that  great 
light  that  fills  the  future,  see  to  it  that  your  present 
Christianity  is  fuller  of  *  peace  with  God,'  '  access  into 
grace,'  and  the  firm,  erect  standing  which  flows  from 
these.  When  the  springs  in  the  mountains  dry  up,  the 
river  in  the  valley  shrinks  ;  and  when  they  are  full,  it 
glides  along  level  with  the  top  of  its  banks.  So  when 
our  Christian  life  in  the  present  is  richest,  our 
Christian  hope  of  the  future  will  be  the  brighter. 
Look  into  yourselves.  Is  there  anything  there  that 
witnesses  to  that  great  future  ;  anything  there  that  is 
obviously  incipient,  and  destined  to  greater  power; 
anything  there  which  is  like  a  tropical  plant  up  here 
in  45  degrees  of  north  latitude,  managing  to  grow, 
but  with  dwarfed  leaves  and  scanty  flowers  and 
half  shrivelled  and  sourish  fruit,  and  that  in  the  cold 
dreams  of  the  warm  native  land?  Reflecting  tele- 
scopes show  the  stars  in  a  mirror,  and  the  observer 
looks  down  to  see  the  heavens.  Look  into  yourselves, 
and  see  whether,  on  the  polished  plate  within,  there 
are  any  images  of  the  stars  that  move  around  the 
Throne  of  God. 

But  let  us  turn  for  a  moment  to  the  second  source  to 
which  the  Apostle  traces  the  Christian  hope  here.  I 
must  not  be  tempted  to  more  than  just  a  word  of 
explanation,  but  perhaps  you  will  tolerate  that.  Paul 
says  that  trouble  works  patience,  that  is  to  say, 
not  only  passive  endurance,  but  brave  persistence  in 


vs.  2-4]       THE  SOURCES  OF  HOPE  83 

a  course,  in  spite  of  antagonisms.  That  is  what 
trouble  does  to  a  man  when  it  is  rightly  borne.  Of 
course  the  Apostle  is  speaking  here  of  its  ideal  opera- 
tion, and  not  of  the  reality  which  alas !  often  is  seen 
when  our  tribulations  lash  us  into  impatience,  or 
paralyse  our  efforts.  Tribulation  worketh  patience, 
'and  patience  experience.'  That  is  a  difficult  word  to 
put  into  English.  There  underlies  it  the  frequent 
thought  which  is  familiar  in  Scripture,  of  trouble  of  all 
kinds  as  testing  a  man,  whether  as  the  refiner's  fire  or 
the  winnower's  fan.  It  tests  a  man,  and  if  he  bears  the 
trouble  with  patient  persistence,  then  he  has  passed 
the  test  and  is  approved.  Patient  perseverance  thus 
works  approval,  or  proof  of  the  man's  Christianity, 
and,  still  more,  proof  of  the  reality  and  power  of  the 
Christ  whom  his  Christianity  grasps.  And  so  from  out 
of  that  approval  or  proof  which  comes,  through  per- 
severance, from  tribulation,  there  rises,  of  course,  in 
that  heart  that  has  been  tested  and  has  stood,  a  calm 
hope  that  the  future  will  be  as  the  past,  and  that, 
having  fought  through  six  troubles,  by  God's  help  the 
seventh  will  be  vanquished  also,  till  at  last  troubles 
will  end,  and  heaven  be  won. 

Brethren,  there  is  the  true  point  of  view  from  which 
to  look,  not  only  at  tribulations,  but  at  all  the  trials, 
for  they  too  bring  trials,  that  lie  in  duty  and  in  enjoy- 
ment, and  in  earthly  things.  They  are  meant  to  work 
in  us  a  conviction,  by  our  experience  of  having  been 
able  to  meet  them  aright,  of  the  reality  of  our  grasp 
of  God,  and  of  the  reality  and  power  of  the  God  whom 
we  grasp.  If  we  took  that  point  of  view  in  regard  to 
all  the  changes  of  this  changeful  life,  we  should  not  so 
often  be  bewildered  and  upset  by  the  darkest  of  our 
sorrows.    The  shining  lancets  and  cruel  cutting  instru- 


84  EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS      [ch.  v. 

ments  that  the  surgeon  lays  out  on  his  table  before  he 
begins  the  operation  are  very  dreadful.  But  the  way  to 
think  of  them  is  that  they  are  there  in  order  to  remove 
from  a  man  what  it  does  him  harm  to  keep,  and  what, 
if  it  is  not  taken  away,  will  kill  him.  So  life,  with  its 
troubles,  great  and  small,  is  all  meant  for  this,  to  make 
us  surer  of,  and  bring  us  closer  to,  our  God,  and  to 
brace  and  strengthen  us  in  our  own  personal  character. 
And  if  it  does  that,  then  blessed  be  everything  that 
produces  these  results,  and  leads  us  thereby  to  glory- 
ing in  the  troubles  by  which  shines  out  on  us  a  brighter 
hope. 

So  there  are  the  two  sources,  you  see  :  the  one  is  the 
blessedness  of  the  Christian  life,  the  other  the  sorrows 
of  the  outward  life,  and  both  may  converge  upon  the 
brightening  of  our  Christian  hope.  Our  rainbow  is  the 
child  of  the  marriage  of  the  sun  and  the  rain.  The 
Christian  hope  comes  from  being  'justified  by  faith, 
having  peace  with  God  .  .  .  and  access  into  grace,'  and 
it  comes  from  tribulation,  which  'worketh  patience,' 
and  patience  which  '  worketh  approval.'  The  one  spark 
is  struck  from  the  hard  flint  by  the  cold  steel,  and  the 
other  is  kindled  by  the  sun  itself,  but  they  are  both 
fire. 

And  so,  lastly,  we  have  here — 

III.  The  one  emotion  with  which  the  Christian 
should  front  all  the  facts,  inward  and  outward,  of  his 
earthly  life. 

•  We  glory  in  the  hope,'  *  we  glory  in  tribulation.'  I 
need  not  dwell  upon  the  lesson  which  is  taught  us  here 
by  the  fact  that  the  Apostle  puts  as  one  in  a  series  of 
Christian  characteristics  this  of  a  steadfast  and  all- 
embracing  joy.  I  do  not  believe  that  we  Christian 
people  half  enough  realise  how  imperative  a  Christian 


vs.  2-4]        THE  SOURCES  OF  HOPE  85 

duty,  as  well  as  how  great  a  Christian  privilege,  it  is  to 
be  glad  always.  You  have  no  right  to  be  anxious ;  you 
are  wrong  to  be  hypochondriac  and  depressed,  and 
weary  and  melancholy.  True  ;  there  are  a  great  many 
occasions  in  our  Christian  life  which  minister  sadness. 
True ;  the  Christian  joy  looks  very  gloomy  to  a  worldly 
eye.  But  there  are  far  more  occasions  which,  if  we  were 
right,  would  make  joy  instinctive,  and  which,  whether 
we  are  right  or  not,  make  it  obligatory  upon  us.  I 
need  no*:  speak  of  how,  if  that  hope  were  brighter  than 
it  commjnly  is  with  us,  and  if  it  were  more  constantly 
present  to  our  minds  and  hearts,  we  should  sing 
with  gladness.  I  need  not  dwell  upon  that  great  and 
wonderful  paradox  by  which  the  co-existence  of  sorrow 
and  of  joy  is  possible.  The  sorrows  are  on  the  sur- 
face ;  beneath  there  may  be  rest.  All  the  winds  of 
heaven  may  rave  across  the  breast  of  ocean,  and  fret 
it  into  clouds  of  spume  against  a  storm-swept  sky.  But 
deep  down  there  is  stillness,  and  yet  not  stagnation, 
because  there  is  the  great  motion  that  brings  life  and 
freshness ;  and  so,  though  there  will  be  wind-vexed 
surfaces  on  our  too-often  agitated  spirits,  there  ought 
to  be  deeper  than  these  the  calm  setting  of  the  whole 
ocean  of  our  nature  towards  God  Himself.  It  is 
possible,  as  this  Apostle  has  it,  to  be  'sorrowful,  yet 
always  rejoicing.'  It  is  possible,  as  his  brother  Apostle 
has  it,  to  '  rejoice  greatly,  though  now  for  a  season  we 
are  in  sorrow  through  manifold  temptations.'  Look 
back  upon  your  lives  from  the  point  of  view  that  your 
tribulation  is  an  instrument  to  produce  hope,  and  you 
will  be  able  to  thank  God  for  all  the  way  by  which  He 
has  led  you. 

Now,  brethren,  the  plain  lesson  of  all  this  is  just  that 
we  have  here,  in  these  texts,  a  linked  chain,  one  end  of 


86  EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS     [ch.  v. 

which  is  wrapped  around  our  sinful  hearts,  and  the 
other  is  fastened  to  the  Throne  of  God.  You  cannot 
drop  any  of  the  links,  and  you  must  begin  at  the 
beginning,  if  you  are  to  be  carried  on  to  the  end.  If 
we  are  to  have  a  joy  immovable,  we  must  have  a 
'  steadfast  hope.'  If  we  are  to  have  a  '  steadfast  hope,' 
we  must  have  a  present '  grace.'  If  we  are  to  have  a 
present '  grace,'  and  '  access  '  to  the  fullness  of  God,  we 
must  have  '  peace  with  God.'  If  we  are  to  have  '  peace 
with  God,'  we  must  have  the  condemnation  i.nd  the 
guilt  taken  away.  If  we  are  to  have  the  condeianation 
and  the  guilt  taken  away,  Jesus  Christ  must  ta'ie  them. 
If  Jesus  Christ  is  to  take  them  away,  we  must  have  faith 
in  Him.  Then  you  can  work  it  backward,  and  begin  at 
your  own  end,  and  say,  '  If  I  have  faith  in  Jesus  Christ, 
then  every  link  of  the  chain  in  due  succession  will  pass 
through  my  hand,  and  I  shall  have  justifying,  peace, 
access,  the  grace,  erectness,  hope,  and  exultation,  and 
at  last  He  will  lead  me  by  the  hand  into  the  glory  for 
which  I  dare  to  hope,  the  glory  which  the  Father  gave 
to  Him  before  the  foundation  of  the  world,  and  which 
He  will  give  to  me  when  the  world  has  passed  away  in 
fervent  heat.' 


A  THREEFOLD  CORD 

'  And  hope  maketh  not  ashamed;  because  the  love  of  God  is  shed  abroad  incur 
hearts  by  the  Holy  Ghost  which  is  given  unto  us.'— Romans  v.  5. 

We  have  seen  in  former  sermons  that,  in  the  previous 
context,  the  Apostle  traces  Christian  hope  to  two 
sources :  one,  the  series  of  experiences  which  follow 
'being  justified  by  faith,'  and  the  other,  those  which 
follow  on  trouble  rightly  borne.  Those  two  golden 
chains  together  hold  up  the  precious  jewel  of  hope. 


V.5]  A  THREEFOLD  CORD  87 

But  a  chain  that  is  to  bear  a  weight  must  have  a  staple, 
or  it  will  fall  to  the  ground.  And  so  Paul  here  turns 
to  yet  another  thought,  and,  going  behind  both  our 
inward  experiences  and  our  outward  discipline,  falls 
back  on  that  which  precedes  all.  After  all  is  said  and 
done,  the  love  of  God,  eternal,  self-originated,  the 
source  of  all  Christian  experiences  because  of  the  work 
of  Christ  which  originates  them  all,  is  the  root  fact  of 
the  universe,  and  the  guarantee  that  our  highest  anti- 
cipations and  desires  are  not  unsubstantial  visions,  but 
morning  dreams,  which  are  proverbially  sure  to  be 
fulfilled.  God  is  love ;  therefore  the  man  who  trusts 
Him  shall  not  be  put  to  shame. 

But  you  will  notice  that  here  the  Apostle  not  only 
adduces  the  love  of  God  as  the  staple,  so  to  speak,  from 
which  these  golden  chains  hang,  but  that  he  traces  the 
heart's  being  suffused  with  that  love  to  its  source, 
and  as,  of  course,  is  always  the  case  in  the  order  of 
analysis,  that  which  was  last  in  time  comes  first  in 
statement.  We  begin  at  the  surface,  and  go  down  and 
down  and  down  from  effect  to  cause,  and  yet  again  to 
the  cause  of  that  cause  which  is  itself  effect.  We  strip 
off,  as  it  were,  layer  after  layer,  until  we  get  to  the 
living  centre — hope  comes  from  the  love,  the  love  comes 
from  the  Spirit  in  the  heart.  And  so  to  get  at  the  order 
of  time  and  of  manifestation,  we  must  reverse  the 
order  of  analysis  in  my  text,  and  begin  where  it  ends. 
So  we  have  here  three  things — the  Spirit  given,  the 
love  shed  abroad  by  that  Spirit,  and  the  hope  estab- 
lished by  that  love.  Now  just  look  at  them  for  a 
moment. 

I.  The  Spirit  given. 

Now,  the  first  point  to  notice  here  is  that  the  Revised 
Version  presents  the  meaning  of  our  text  more  accui- 


88  EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS     [ch.  v. 

ately  than  the  Authorised  Version,  because,  instead  of 
reading  '  is  given,'  it  correctly  reads  *  was  given.'  And 
any  of  you  that  can  consult  the  original  will  see  that 
the  form  of  the  language  implies  that  the  Apostle  is 
thinking,  not  so  much  of  a  continuous  bestowment,  as 
of  a  definite  moment  when  this  great  gift  was  bestowed 
upon  the  man  to  whom  he  is  speaking. 

So  the  first  question  is,  when  was  that  Spirit  given  to 
these  Roman  Christians?  The  Christian  Church  has 
been  split  in  two  by  its  answers  to  that  question.  One 
influential  part,  which  has  taken  a  new  lease  of  life 
amongst  us  to-day,  says  '  in  baptism,'  and  the  other 
says  '  at  the  moment  of  faith.'  I  am  not  going  to  be 
tempted  into  controversial  paths  now,  for  my  pur- 
pose is  a  very  different  one,  but  I  cannot  help  just  a 
word  about  the  former  of  these  two  answers.  '  Given 
in  baptism,'  say  our  friends,  and  I  venture  to  think 
that  they  thereby  degrade  Christianity  into  a  system 
of  magic,  bringing  together  two  entirely  disparate 
things,  an  external  physical  act  and  a  spiritual  change. 
I  do  not  say  anything  about  the  disastrous  effects  that 
have  followed  from  such  a  conception  of  the  medium 
by  which  this  greatest  of  all  Christian  gifts  is  effected 
upon  men.  Since  the  Spirit  who  is  given  is  life,  the 
result  of  the  gift  of  that  Spirit  is  a  new  life,  and  we  all 
know  what  disastrous  and  debasing  consequences  have 
followed  from  that  dogma  of  regeneration  by  baptism. 
No  doubt  it  is  perfectly  true  that  normally,  in  the  early 
Church,  the  Divine  Spirit  was  given  at  baptism;  but 
for  one  thing,  that  general  rule  had  exceptions,  as  in 
the  case  of  Cornelius,  and,  for  another  thing,  though 
it  was  given  at  baptism,  it  was  not  given  in  baptism, 
but  it  was  given  through  faith,  of  which  in  those  days 
baptism  was  the  sequel  and  the  sign. 


V  5]  A  THREEFOLD  CORD  89 

But  I  pass  altogether  from  this,  and  fall  back  on  the 
great  words  which,  to  me  at  least,  if  there  were  no 
other,  would  determine  the  whole  answer  to  this  ques- 
tion as  to  when  the  Spirit  was  given :  '  This  spake  He  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,  which  they  that  believe  on  Him  should 
receive';  and  I  would  ask  the  modern  upholders  of 
the  other  theory  the  indignant  question  which  the 
Apostle  Paul  fired  off  out  of  his  heavy  artillery  at  their 
ancient  analogues,  the  circumcisers  in  the  Galatian 
Church :  '  This  only  would  I  know  of  you :  Received 
ye  the  Holy  Spirit  by  the  works  of  the  law,  or  by  the 
hearing  of  faith  ? ' 

The  answer  which  the  evangelical  Christian  gives  to 
this  ancient  question  suggested  by  my  text,  '  When 
was  that  Divine  Spirit  bestowed  ? '  is  congruous  with 
the  spirituality  of  the  Christian  faith,  and  is  eminently 
reasonable.  For  the  condition  required  is  the  opening 
of  the  whole  nature  in  willing  welcome  to  the  entrance 
of  the  Divine  Spirit,  and  as  surely  as,  wherever  there 
is  an  indentation  of  the  land,  and  a  concavity  of  a 
receptive  bay,  the  ocean  will  pour  into  it  and  fill  it,  so 
surely  where  a  heart  is  open  for  God,  God  in  His  Divine 
Spirit  will  enter  into  that  heart,  and  there  will  shed  His 
blessed  influences. 

So,  dear  brethren,  and  this  is  the  main  point  to  which 
I  wish  to  direct  your  attention,  the  Apostle  here  takes 
it  for  granted  that  all  these  Roman  Christians  knew  in 
themselves  the  truth  of  what  he  was  saying,  and  had 
an  experience  which  confirmed  his  assertion  that  the 
Divine  Spirit  of  God  was  given  to  them  when  they 
believed.  Ah !  I  wonder  if  that  is  true  about  us  pro- 
fessing Christians ;  if  we  are  aware  in  any  measure  of 
a  higher  life  than  our  own  having  been  breathed  into 
us ;  if  we  are  aware  in  any  measure  of  a  Divine  Spirit 


90  EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS     [ch.  v. 

dwelling  in  our  spirits,  moulding,  lifting,  enlightening, 
guiding,  constraining,  and  yet  not  coercing  ?  We  ought 
to  be.  '  Know  ye  not  that  the  Spirit  dwelleth  in  you, 
except  ye  be  rejected  ? '  Brethren,  it  seems  to  me  to 
be  of  the  very  last  importance,  in  this  period  of  the 
Church's  history,  that  the  proportion  between  the 
Church's  teaching  as  to  the  work  of  Christ  on  the 
Cross,  and  as  to  the  consequent  work  of  the  Spirit  of 
Christ  in  our  hearts  and  spirits,  should  be  changed. 
We  must  become  more  mystical  if  we  are  not  to 
become  less  Christian.  And  the  fact  that  so  many  of 
us  seem  to  imagine  that  the  whole  Gospel  lies  in  this, 
that  'He  died  for  our  sins  according  to  the  Scriptures, 
and  have  relegated  the  teaching  that  He,  by  His  Spirit, 
lives  in  us,  if  we  are  His  disciples,  to  a  less  prominent 
place,  has  done  enormous  harm,  not  only  to  the  type 
of  Christian  life,  but  to  the  conception  of  what  Christi- 
anity is,  both  amongst  those  who  receive  it,  and 
amongst  those  who  do  not  accept  it,  making  it  out  to 
be  nothing  more  than  a  means  of  escape  from  the  con- 
sequences of  our  transgression,  instead  of  recognising  it 
for  what  it  is,  the  impartation  of  a  new  life  which  will 
flower  into  all  beauty,  and  bear  fruit  in  all  goodness. 

There  was  a  question  put  once  to  a  group  of  disciples, 
in  astonishment  and  incredulity,  by  this  Apostle,  when 
he  said  to  the  twelve  disciples  in  Ephesus,  'Did  you 
receive  the  Holy  Ghost  when  you  believed  ? '  The 
question  might  well  be  put  to  a  multitude  of  professing 
Christians  amongst  us,  and  I  am  afraid  a  great  many 
of  them,  if  they  answered  truly,  would  answer  as  those 
disciples  did, '  We  have  not  so  much  as  heard  whether 
there  be  any  Holy  Ghost.' 
And  now  for  the  second  point  in  my  text — 
II.  The  love  which  is  shed  abroad  by  that  Spirit. 


V.  6]  A  THREEFOLD  CORD  91 

Now,  I  suppose  I  do  not  need  to  do  more  than  point 
out  that '  the  love  of  God '  here  means  His  to  us,  and 
not  ours  to  Him,  and  that  the  metaphor  employed  is 
but  partially  represented  by  that  rendering  '  shed 
abroad.'  'Poured  out'  would  better  convey  Paul's 
image,  which  is  that  of  a  flood  sent  coursing  through 
the  heart,  or,  perhaps,  rather  lying  there,  as  a  calm 
deep  lake  on  whose  unruffled  surface  the  heavens,  with 
all  their  stars,  are  reflected.  Of  course,  if  God's  love  to 
us  thus  suffuses  a  heart,  then  there  follows  the  con- 
sciousness of  that  love ;  though  it  is  not  the  conscious- 
ness of  the  love  that  the  Apostle  is  primarily  speaking 
of,  but  that  which  lies  behind  it,  the  actual  flowing 
into  the  human  heart  of  that  sweet  and  all-satisfying 
Love.  This  Divine  Spirit  that  dwells  in  us,  if  we  are 
trusting  in  Christ,  will  pour  it  in  full  streams  into  our 
else  empty  hearts.  Surely  there  is  nothing  incongruous 
with  the  nature  either  of  God  or  of  man,  in  believing 
that  thus  a  real  communication  is  possible  between 
them,  and  that  by  thoughts  the  occasions  of  which  we 
cannot  trace,  by  moments  of  elevation,  by  swift,  pierc- 
ing convictions,  by  sudden  clear  illuminations,  God 
may  speak,  and  will  speak,  in  our  waiting  hearts. 

'  Such  rebounds  the  inmost  ear 

Catches  often  from  afar. 
Listen,  prize  them,  hold  them  dear ; 
For  of  God,  of  God,  they  are.' 

But  we  must  not  forget,  too,  that,  according  to  the 
whole  strain  of  New  Testament  thinking,  the  means 
by  which  that  Divine  Spirit  does  pour  out  the  flashing 
flood  of  the  love  of  God  into  a  man's  heart  is,  as  Jesus 
Christ  Himself  has  taught  us,  by  taking  the  things  of 
Christ  and  showing  them  to  us. 

Now,  as  I  said  about  a  former  point  of  my  sermon, 


92  EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS    [ch.v. 

that  the  Apostle  was  taking  for  granted  that  this  gift 
of  the  Spirit  belonged  to  all  Christian  people :  so  here 
again  he  takes  for  granted  that  in  every  Christian 
heart  there  is,  by  a  divine  operation,  the  presence 
of  the  love,  and  of  the  consciousness  of  the  love,  of 
God.  And,  again,  the  question  conies  to  some  of  us 
stunningly,  to  all  of  us  warningly.  Is  that  a  transcript 
of  our  experience  ?  It  is  the  ideal  of  a  Christian  life ; 
it  is  meant  that  it  should  be  so,  and  should  be  so 
continuously.  The  stream  that  is  poured  out  is  in- 
tended to  run  summer  and  winter,  not  to  be  dried  up  in 
drought,  nor  made  turbid  and  noisy  in  flood,  but  with 
equable  flow  throughout.  I  fear  me  that  the  experience 
of  most  good  people  is  rather  like  one  of  those  tropical 
wadies,  or  nullahs  in  Eastern  lands,  where  there  alter- 
nate times  of  spate  and  times  of  drought ;  and  instead 
of  a  flashing  stream,  pouring  life  everywhere,  and 
full  to  the  top  of  its  banks,  there  is  for  long  periods 
a  dismal  stretch  of  white  sun-baked  stones,  and  a 
chaos  of  tumbled  rocks  with  not  a  drop  of  water  in 
the  channel.  The  Spirit  pours  God's  love  into  men's 
spirits,  but  there  may  be  dams  and  barriers,  so  that  no 
drop  of  the  water  comes  into  the  empty  heart. 

Our  Quaker  friends  have  a  great  deal  to  say  about 
*  waiting  for  the  springing  of  the  life  within  us.'  Never 
mind  about  the  phraseology:  what  is  meant  is  pro- 
foundly true,  that  no  Christian  man  will  realise  this 
blessing  unless  he  knows  how  to  sit  still  and  meditate, 
and  let  the  gracious  influence  soak  into  him.  Thus 
being  quiet,  he  may,  he  will,  find  rising  in  his  heart 
the  consciousness  of  the  love  of  God.  You  will  not,  if 
you  give  only  broken  momentary  sidelong  glances; 
you  will  not,  if  you  do  not  lie  still.  If  you  hold  up  a 
cup  in  a  shaking  hand  beneath  a  fountain,  and  often 


V.  6]  A  THREEFOLD  CORD  98 

twitch  it  aside,  you  will  get  little  water  in  it;  and 
unless  we  '  wait  on  the  Lord,'  we  shall  not '  renew  our 
strength.'  You  can  build  a  dam  as  they  do  in  Holland 
that  will  keep  out,  not  only  the  waters  of  a  river,  but 
the  waters  of  an  ocean,  and  not  a  drop  will  come 
through  the  dike.  Brethren,  we  must  keep  ourselves 
in  the  love  of  God. 

Lastly,  we  have  here — 

III.  The  hope  that  is  established  by  the  love  poured 
out. 

I  need  not  dwell  at  any  length  upon  this  point, 
because,  to  a  large  extent,  it  has  been  anticipated  in 
former  sermons,  but  just  a  word  or  two  may  be  per- 
mitted me.  That  love,  you  may  be  very  sure,  is  not 
going  to  lose  its  objects  in  the  dust.  The  old  Psalmist 
who  knew  so  much  less  than  we  do  as  to  the  love  of 
God,  and  knew  nothing  of  the  whispers  of  a  Divine 
Spirit  within  his  heart  charged  with  the  message  of 
the  love  as  it  was  manifested  in  Jesus  Christ,  had 
risen  to  a  height  of  confidence,  the  beauty  of  the 
expression  of  which  is  often  lost  sight  of,  because  we 
insist  upon  dealing  with  it  as  merely  being  a  Messianic 
prophecy,  which  it  is,  but  not  merely :  '  Thou  wilt  not 
leave  my  soul  in  Sheol,  neither  wilt  Thou  sujffer  Thy 
beloved'  (for  that  is  the  real  meaning  of  the  word 
translated  '  thy  Holy  One ') — '  Thou  wilt  not  suffer  the 
child  of  Thy  love  to  see  corruption.'  Death's  bony 
fingers  can  untie  all  true  lover's  knots  but  one;  and 
they  fumble  at  that  one  in  vain.  God  will  not  lose  His 
child  in  the  grave. 

That  love,  we  may  be  very  sure,  will  not  foster  in  us 
hopes  that  are  to  be  disappointed.  Now,  it  is  a  fact 
that  the  more  a  man  feels  that  God  loves  him,  the  less 
is  it  possible  for  him  to  believe  that  that  love  will  ever 


94  EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS     [ch.  v. 

terminate,  or  that  he  shall  *  all  die.'  In  the  lock  of  a 
canal,  as  the  water  pours  in,  the  vessel  rises.  In  our 
hearts,  as  the  flood  of  the  full  love  of  God  pours  in,  our 
hopes  are  borne  up  and  up,  nearer  and  nearer  to  the 
heavens.  Since  it  is  so,  we  must  find  in  the  fact  that 
the  constant  and  necessary  result  of  communion  with 
Him  here  on  earth  is  a  conviction  of  the  immortality 
of  that  communion,  a  very,  very  strong  guarantee  for 
ourselves  that  the  hope  is  not  in  vain.  And  if  you  say 
that  that  is  all  merely  subjective,  yet  I  think  that  the 
universality  of  the  experience  is  a  fact  to  be  taken  into 
account  even  by  those  who  doubt  the  reality  of  the 
hope,  and  for  ourselves,  at  all  events,  is  a  sufficient 
ground  on  which  to  rest.  We  have  the  historical  fact 
of  the  Resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ.  We  have  the  fact 
that  wherever  there  has  been  earthly  experience  of 
true  communion  with  God,  there,  and  in  the  measure 
in  which  it  has  been  realised,  the  thermometer  of  our 
hopes  of  immortality,  so  to  speak,  has  risen.  '  God  is 
love,'  and  God  will  not  bring  the  man  that  trusts  Him 
to  confusion. 

And  may  we  not  venture  to  say  that,  contemplating 
the  analogous  earthly  love,  we  are  permitted  to  believe 
that  that  divine  Lover  of  our  souls  desires  to  have  His 
beloved  with  Him,  and  desires  that  there  be  no  separa- 
tion between  Him  and  them,  either,  if  I  might  so  say, 
in  place  or  in  disposition  ?  As  certainly  as  husband  and 
wife,  lover  and  friend,  long  to  be  together,  and  need  it 
for  perfection  and  for  rest,  so  surely  will  that  divine 
love  not  be  satisfied  until  it  has  gathered  all  its  children 
to  its  breast  and  made  them  partakers  of  itself. 

There  are  many,  many  hopes  that  put  the  men  who 
cherish  them  to  shame,  partly  because  they  are  never 
fulfilled,  partly  because,  though  fulfilled,  they  are  dis- 


V.  5]       WHAT  PROVES  GOD'S  LOVE         95 

appointed,  since  the  reality  is  so  much  less  than  the 
anticipation.  Who  does  not  know  that  the  spray  of 
blossom  on  the  tree  looks  far  more  lovely  hanging 
above  our  heads  than  v^hen  it  is  grasped  by  us  ?  Who 
does  not  know  that  the  fish  struggling  on  the  hook 
seems  heavier  than  it  turns  out  to  be  when  lying  on  the 
bank  ?  We  go  to  the  rainbow's  end,  and  we  find,  not  a 
pot  of  gold,  but  a  huddle  of  cold,  wet  mist.  There  is 
one  man  that  is  entitled  to  say :  •  To-morrow  shall  be 
as  this  day,  and  much  more  abundant.'  Who  is  he? 
Only  the  man  whose  hope  is  in  the  Lord  his  God.  If 
we  open  our  hearts  by  faith,  then  these  three  lines  of 
sequence  of  which  we  have  been  speaking  will  con- 
verge, and  we  shall  have  the  hope  that  is  the  shining 
apex  of  *  being  justified  by  faith,*  and  the  hope  that  is 
the  calm  result  of  trouble  and  agitation,  and  the  hope 
that,  travelling  further  and  higher  than  anything  in 
our  inward  experience  or  our  outward  discipline, 
grasps  the  key-word  of  the  universe,  'God  is  love,' 
and  triumphantly  makes  sure  that  *  neither  death  nor 
life,  nor  angels,  nor  principalities,  nor  powers,  nor 
things  present,  nor  things  to  come,  nor  height,  nor 
depth,  nor  any  other  creature,  shall  be  able  to  separate 
us  from  the  love  of  God  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus  our 
Lord.* 


WHAT  PROVES  GOD'S  LOVE 

'  God  commendeth  His  love  toward  us,  ia  that,  while  we  were  yet  sinnrjrs,  Christ 
died  for  us.'— Romans  v.  8. 

We  have  seen  in  previous  sermons  on  the  preceding 
context  that  the  Apostle  has  been  tracing  various  lines 
of  sequence,  all  of  which  converge  upon  Christian 
hope.    The  last  of  these  pointed  to  the  fact  that  the 


96  EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS     [ch.  v. 

love  of  God,  poured  into  a  heart  like  oil  into  a  lamp, 
brightened  that  flame  ;  and  having  thus  mentioned  the 
great  Christian  revelation  of  God  as  love,  Paul  at 
once  passes  to  emphasise  the  historical  fact  on  which 
the  conviction  of  that  love  rests,  and  goes  on  to  say- 
that  '  the  love  of  God  is  shed  abroad  in  our  hearts  by 
the  Holy  Ghost  which  is  given  to  us,  for  when  we  were 
yet  without  strength,  in  due  time  Christ  died  for  the 
ungodly.'  Then  there  rises  before  him  the  thought 
of  how  transcendent  and  unparalleled  a  love  is  that 
which  pours  its  whole  preciousness  on  unworthy  and 
unresponsive  hearts.  He  thinks  to  himself — *We  are 
all  ungodly ;  without  strength — yet.  He  died  for  us. 
Would  any  man  do  that  ?  No !  for,'  says  he, '  it  will  be 
a  hard  thing  to  find  any  one  ready  to  die  for  a  righteous 
man — a  man  rigidly  just  and  upright,  and  because 
rigidly  just,  a  trifle  hard,  and  therefore  not  likely  to 
touch  a  heart  to  sacrifice;  and  even  for  a  good  man, 
in  whom  austere  righteousness  has  been  softened  and 
made  attractive,  and  become  graciousness  and  benefi- 
cence, well!  it  is  just  within  the  limits  of  possibility 
that  somebody  might  be  found  even  to  die  for  a  man 
that  had  laid  such  a  strong  hand  upon  his  affections. 
But  God  commendeth  His  love  in  that  while  we  were 
yet  sinners  Christ  died  for  us.'  Now,  when  Paul  says 
*  commend,'  he  uses  a  very  significant  word  which  is 
employed  in  two  ways  in  the  New  Testament.  It 
sometimes  means  to  establish,  or  to  prove,  or  to  make 
certain.  But  '  prove '  is  a  cold  word,  and  the  expres- 
sion also  means  to  recommend,  to  set  forth  in  such  a 
way  as  to  appeal  to  the  heart,  and  God  does  both  in 
that  great  act.  He  establishes  the  fact,  and  He,  as  it 
were,  sweeps  it  into  a  man's  heart,  on  the  bosom  of 
that  full  tide  of  self-sacrifice. 


V.  8]      r^HAT  PROVES  GOD'S  LOVE         97 

So  there  are  two  or  three  points  that  arise  from 
these  words,  on  which  I  desire  to  dwell  now — to 
lay  thjm  upon  our  hearts,  and  not  only  upon  our 
understandings.  For  it  is  a  poor  thing  to  prove  the 
love  of  God,  and  we  need  that  not  only  shall  we  be  sure 
of  it,  but  that  we  shall  be  softened  by  it.  So  now  let 
me  ask  you  to  look  with  me,  first,  at  this  question — 

I.  What  Paul  thought  Jesus  Christ  died  for. 

*  Died  for  us.'  Now  that  expression  plainly  implies 
two  things:  first,  that  Christ  died  of  His  own 
accord,  and  being  impelled  by  a  great  motive,  benefi- 
cence; and,  second,  that  that  voluntary  death,  some- 
how or  other,  is  for  our  behoc  f  and  advantage.  The 
word  in  the  original,  *  for,'  does  not  define  in  what  way 
that  death  ministers  to  our  advantage,  but  it  does 
assert  that  f o^'  those  Roman  Christians  who  had  never 
seen  Jesus  Christ,  and  by  consequence  for  you  and  me 
nineteen  centuries  off  the  Cross,  there  is  benefit  in 
the  fact  of  that  death.  Now,  suppose  we  quote  an 
incident  in  the  story  of  missionary  martyrdom.  There 
was  a  young  lady,  whom  some  of  us  knew  and  loved, 
in  a  Chinese  mission  station,  who,  with  the  rest  of  the 
missionary  band,  was  flying.  Her  life  was  safe.  She 
looked  back,  and  saw  a  Chinese  boy  that  her  heart 
twined  round,  in  danger.  She  returned  to  save  him ; 
they  laid  hold  of  her  and  flung  her  into  the  burning 
house,  and  her  charred  remains  have  never  been 
found.  That  was  a  death  for  another,  but  'Jesus 
died  for  us '  in  a  deeper  sense  than  that.  Take 
another  case.  A  man  sets  himself  to  some  great 
cause,  not  his  own,  and  he  sees  that  in  order  to 
bless  humanity,  either  by  the  proclamation  of  some 
truth,  or  by  the  origination  of  some  great  movement, 
or  in  some  other  way,  if  he  is  to  carry  out  his  purpose, 

G 


98  EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS     [ch.  v. 

he  must  give  his  life.  He  does  so,  and  dies  a  martyr. 
What  he  aimed  at  could  only  be  done  by  the  sacrifice 
of  his  life.  The  death  was  a  means  to  his  end,  and  he 
died  for  his  fellows.  That  is  not  the  depth  of  the 
sense  in  which  Paul  meant  that  Jesus  Christ  died  for 
us.  It  was  not  that  He  was  true  to  His  message,  and, 
like  many  another  martyr,  died.  There  is  only  one 
way,  as  it  seems  to  me,  in  which  any  beneficial  relation 
can  be  established  between  the  Death  of  Christ  and 
us,  and  it  is  that  when  He  died  He  died  for  us,  because 
'  He  bare  our  sins  in  His  own  body  on  the  tree.' 

Dear  brethren,  I  dare  say  some  of  you  do  not  take 
that  view,  but  I  know  not  how  justice  can  be  done  to 
the  plain  words  of  Scripture  unless  this  is  the  point 
of  view  from  which  we  look  at  the  Cross  of  Calvary — 
that  there  the  Lamb  of  Sacrifice  was  bearing,  and 
bearing  away,  the  sins  of  the  whole  world.  I  know 
that  Christian  men  who  unite  in  the  belief  that  Christ's 
death  was  a  sacrifice  and  an  atonement  diverge  from 
one  another  in  their  interpretations  of  the  way  in 
which  that  came  to  be  a  fact,  and  I  believe,  for  my 
part,  that  the  divergent  interpretations  are  like  the 
divergent  beams  of  light  that  fall  upon  men  who  stand 
round  the  same  great  luminary,  and  that  all  of  them 
take  their  origin  in,  and  are  part  of  the  manifestation 
of,  the  one  transcendent  fact,  which  passes  all  under- 
standing, and  gathers  into  itself  all  the  diverse  con- 
ceptions of  it  which  are  formed  by  limited  minds.  He 
died  for  us  because,  in  His  death,  our  sins  are  taken 
away  and  we  are  restored  to  the  divine  favour. 

I  know  that  Jesus  Christ  is  said  to  have  made  far 
less  of  that  aspect  of  His  work  in  the  Gospels  than  His 
disciples  have  done  in  the  Epistles,  and  that  we  are 
told  that,  if  we  go  back  to  Jesus,  we  shall  not  find  the 


V.  8]       WHAT  PROVES  GOD'S  LOVE         99 

doctrine  which  for  some  of  us  is  the  first  form  in  which 
the  Gospel  finds  its  way  into  the  hearts  of  men.  I 
admit  that  the  fully-developed  teaching  followed  the 
fact,  as  was  necessarily  the  case.  I  do  not  admit  that 
Jesus  Christ  'spake  nothing  concerning  Himself  as 
the  sacrifice  for  the  world's  sins.  For  I  hear  from 
His  lips — not  to  dwell  upon  other  sayings  which  I  could 
quote — I  hear  from  His  lips,  '  The  Son  of  Man  came  not 
to  be  ministered  unto,  but  to  minister ' — that  is  only 
half  His  purpose — *and  to  give  His  life  a  ransom 
instead  of  the  many.'  You  cannot  strike  the  atoning 
aspect  of  His  death  out  of  that  expression  by  any  fair 
handling  of  the  words. 

And  what  does  the  Lord's  Supper  mean  ?  Why  did 
Jesus  Christ  select  that  one  point  of  His  life  as  the 
point  to  be  remembered  ?  Why  did  He  institute  the 
double  memorial,  the  body  parted  from  the  blood  being 
a  sign  of  a  violent  death  ?  I  know  of  no  explanation 
that  makes  that  Lord's  Supper  an  intelligible  rite 
except  the  explanation  which  says  that  He  came,  to 
live  indeed,  and  in  that  life  to  be  a  sacrifice,  but  to 
make  the  sacrifice  complete  by  Himself  bearing  the 
consequences  of  transgression,  and  making  atonement 
for  the  sins  of  the  world. 

Brethren,  that  is  the  only  aspect  of  Christ's  death 
which  makes  it  of  any  consequence  to  us.  Strip  it  of 
that,  and  what  does  it  matter  to  me  that  He  died,  any 
more  than  it  matters  to  me  that  any  philanthropist, 
any  great  teacher,  any  hero  or  martyr  or  saint,  should 
have  died?  As  it  seems  to  me,  nothing.  Christ's 
death  is  surrounded  by  tenderly  pathetic  and  beautiful 
accompaniments.  As  a  story  it  moves  the  hearts  of 
men,  and  '  purges  them,  by  pity  and  by  terror.'  But 
the  death    of  many  a  hero  of  tragedy  does  all  that. 


r 


100         EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS     [ch.  v. 

And  if  you  want  to  have  the  Cross  of  Christ  held 
upright  in  its  place  as  the  Throne  of  Christ  and  the 
attractive  power  for  the  whole  world,  you  must  not 
tamper  with  that  great  truth,  but  say,  '  He  died  for 
our  sins,  according  to  the  Scriptures.' 

Now,  there  is  a  second  question  that  I  wish  to  ask, 
and  that  is — 

II.  How  does  Christ's  death  '  commend '  God's  love  ? 

That  is  a  strange  expression,  if  you  will  think  about 
it,  that  *  God  commendeth  His  love  towards  us  in  that 
Christ  died.'  If  you  take  the  interpretation  of  Christ's 
death  of  which  I  have  already  been  speaking,  one 
could  have  understood  the  Apostle  if  he  had  said, 
'  Christ  commendeth  His  love  towards  us  in  that 
Christ  died.'  But  where  is  the  force  of  the  fact  of  a 
mans  death  to  prove  God's  love ?  Do  you  not  see  that 
underlying  that  swift  sentence  of  the  Apostle  there 
is  a  presupposition,  which  he  takes  for  granted  ?  It 
is  so  obvious  that  I  do  not  need  to  dwell  upon  it  to 
vindicate  his  change  of  persons,  viz.  that  '  God  was  in 
Christ,'  in  such  fashion  as  that  whatsoever  Christ  did 
was  the  revelation  of  God.  You  cannot  suppose,  at 
least  I  cannot  see  how  you  can,  that  there  is  any 
force  of  proof  in  the  words  of  my  text,  unless  you 
come  up  to  the  full  belief,  *  God  was  in  Christ  recon- 
ciling the  world  to  Himself.' 

Suppose  some  great  martyr  who  dies  for  his  fellows. 
Well,  all  honour  to  him,  and  the  race  will  come  to  his 
tomb  for  a  while,  and  bring  their  wreaths  and  their 
sorrow.  But  what  bearing  has  his  death  upon  our 
knowledge  of  God's  love  towards  us  ?  None  whatever, 
or  at  most  a  very  indirect  and  shadowy  one.  We 
have  to  dig  deeper  down  than  that.  '  God  commends 
His  love  ...  in  that  Christ  died.'    '  He  that  hath  seen 


V.8]      WHAT  PROVES  GOD'S  LOVE       101 

Me  hath  seen  the  Father.'  And  we  have  the  right  and 
the  obligation  to  argue  back  from  all  that  is  manifest 
in  the  tender  Christ  to  the  heart  of  God,  and  say,  not 
only,  •  God  so  loved  the  world  that  He '  sent  His  Son, 
but  to  see  that  the  love  that  was  in  Christ  is  the 
manifestation  of  the  love  of  God  Himself. 

So  there  stands  the  Cross,  the  revelation  to  us,  not 
only  of  a  Brother's  sacrifice,  but  of  a  Father's  love ; 
and  that  because  Jesus  Christ  is  the  revelation  of  God 
as  being  the  *  eradiation  of  His  glory,  and  the  express 
image  of  His  person.'  Friends!  light  does  pour  out 
from  that  Cross,  whatever  view  men  take  of  it. 
But  the  omnipotent  beam,  the  all-illuminating 
radiance,  the  transforming  light,  the  heat  that  melts, 
are  all  dependent  on  our  looking  at  it — I  do  not  only 
say,  as  Paul  looked  at  it,  nor  do  I  even  say  as 
Christ  looked  at  it,  but  as  the  deep  necessities  of 
humanity  require  that  the  world  should  look  at  it, 
as  the  altar  whereon  is  laid  the  sacrifice  for  our  sins, 
the  very  Son  of  God  Himself.  To  me  the  great  truths 
of  the  Incarnation  and  the  Atonement  of  Jesus 
Christ  are  not  points  in  a  mere  speculative  theology ; 
they  are  the  pulsating  vital  centre  of  religion.  And 
every  man  needs  them  in  his  own  experience. 

I  was  going  to  have  said  a  word  or  two  here — but 
it  is  not  necessary — about  the  need  that  the  love  of 
God  should  be  irrefragably  established,  by  some  plain 
and  undeniable  and  conspicuous  fact.  I  need  not  dwell 
upon  the  ambiguous  oracles  which — 

•  Nature,  red  in  tooth  and  claw, 
With  rapine ' 

gives  forth,  nor  on  how  the  facts  of  human  life,  our 
own  sorrows,  and  the  world's  miseries,  the  tears  that 


102        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS      [ch.v. 

swathe  the  earth,  as  it  rolls  on  its  orbit,  like  a  misty 
atmosphere,  war  against  the  creed  that  God  is  love. 
I  need  not  remind  you,  either,  of  how  deep,  in  our  own 
hearts,  when  the  conscience  begins  to  speak  its  not 
ambiguous  oracles,  there  does  rise  the  conviction  that 
there  is  much  in  us  which  it  is  impossible  should  be 
the  object  of  God's  love.  Nor  need  I  remind  you  how 
all  these  difficulties  in  believing  in  a  God  who  is  love, 
based  on  the  contradictory  aspects  of  nature,  and  the 
mysteries  of  providence,  and  the  whisperings  of  our 
own  consciousness,  are  proved  to  have  been  insuper- 
able by  the  history  of  the  world,  where  we  find  mytho- 
logies and  religions  of  all  types  and  gods  of  every  sort, 
but  nowhere  in  all  the  pantheon  a  God  who  is  Love. 

Only  let  me  press  upon  you  that  that  conviction  of 
the  love  of  God,  which  is  found  now  far  beyond  the 
limits  of  Christian  faith,  and  amongst  many  of  us 
who,  in  the  name  of  that  conviction  itself,  reject 
Christianity,  because  of  its  sterner  aspects,  is  histori- 
cally the  child  of  the  evangelical  doctrine  of  the 
Incarnation  and  sacrifice  of  Jesus  Christ.  And  if  it 
still  subsists,  as  I  know  it  does,  especially  in  this 
generation,  amongst  many  men  who  reject  what  seems 
to  me  to  be  the  very  kernel  of  Christianity — subsists 
like  the  stream  cut  off  from  its  source,  but  still  run- 
ning, that  only  shows  that  men  hold  many  convictions 
the  origin  of  which  they  do  not  know.  God  is  love. 
You  will  not  permanently  sustain  that  belief  against 
the  pressure  of  outward  mysteries  and  inward  sorrows, 
unless  you  grasp  the  other  conviction  that  Christ  died 
for  our  sins.    The  two  are  inseparable. 

And  now  lastly — 

III.  What  kind  of  love  does  Christ's  death  declare 
to  us  as  existing  in  God  ? 


V.8]       WHAT  PROVES  GOD'S  LOVE        103 

A  love  that  is  turned  away  by  no  sin — that  is  the 
thing  that  strikes  the  Apostle  here,  as  I  have  already 
pointed  out.  The  utmost  reach  of  human  affection 
might  be  that  a  man  would  die  for  the  good — he  would 
scarcely  die  for  the  righteous.  But  God  sends  His 
Son,  and  comes  Himself  in  His  Son,  and  His  Son  died 
for  the  ungodly  and  the  sinner.  That  death  reveals  a 
love  which  is  its  own  origin  and  motive.  We  love 
because  we  discern,  or  fancy  we  do,  something  lovable 
in  the  object.  God  loves  under  the  impulse,  so  to 
speak,  of  His  own  welling-up  heart. 

And  yet  it  is  a  love  which,  though  not  turned  away 
by  any  sin,  is  witnessed  by  that  death  to  be  rigidly 
righteous.  It  is  no  mere  flaccid,  flabby  laxity  of  a  loose- 
girt  affection,  no  mere  foolish  indulgence  like  that 
whereby  earthly  parents  spoil  their  children.  God's 
love  is  not  lazy  good-nature,  as  a  great  many  of  us 
think  it  to  be  and  so  drag  it  in  the  mud,  but  it  is 
rigidly  righteous,  and  therefore  Christ  died.  That 
Death  witnesses  that  it  is  a  love  which  shrinks  from 
no  sacrifices.  This  Isaac  was  not  '  spared.'  God  gave 
up  His  Son.  Love  has  its  very  speech  in  surrender, 
and  God's  love  speaks  as  ours  does.  It  is  a  love  which, 
turned  away  by  no  sin,  and  yet  rigidly  righteous  and 
shrinking  from  no  sacrifices,  embraces  all  ages  and 
lands.  'God  commendeth' — not  'commended.'  The 
majestic  present  tense  suggests  that  time  and  space 
are  nothing  to  the  swift  and  all-filling  rays  of  that 
great  Light.  That  love  is  'towards  us,'  you  and  me 
and  all  our  fellows.  The  Death  is  an  historical  fact, 
occurring  in  one  short  hour.  The  Cross  is  an  eternal 
power,  raying  out  light  and  love  over  all  humanity  and 
through  all  ages. 

God  lays  siege  to  all  hearts  in  that  great  sacrifice. 


104         EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS     [ch.  v. 

Do  you  believe  that  Jesus  Christ  died  for  your  sins 
*  according  to  the  Scriptures '  ?  Do  you  see  there  the 
assurance  of  a  love  which  will  lift  you  up  above  all 
the  cross-currents  of  earthly  life,  and  the  mysteries  of 
providence,  into  the  clear  ether  where  the  sunshine  is 
unobscured?  And  above  all,  do  you  fling  back  the 
reverberating  ray  from  the  mirror  of  your  own  heart 
that  directs  again  towards  heaven  the  beam  of  love 
which  heaven  has  shot  down  upon  you?  'Herein  is 
love,  not  that  we  loved  God,  but  that  He  loved  us, 
and  gave  His  Son  to  be  the  propitiation  for  our  sins.' 
Is  it  true  of  us  that  we  love  God  because  He  first 
loved  us  ? 

THE  WARRING  QUEENS 

*  Ab  sin  hath  reigned  unto  death,  even  so  might  grace  reign  through  righteous- 
ness unto  eternal  life  by  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.'— Romans  v.  21. 

I  AM  afraid  this  text  will  sound  to  some  of  you  rather 
unpromising.  It  is  full  of  well-worn  terms,  'sin,' 
'death,'  'grace,'  'righteousness,'  'eternal  life,'  which 
suggest  dry  theology,  if  they  suggest  anything. 
When  they  welled  up  from  the  Apostle's  glowing  heart 
they  were  like  a  fiery  lava-stream.  But  the  stream 
has  cooled,  and,  to  a  good  many  of  us,  they  seem  as 
barren  and  sterile  as  the  long  ago  cast  out  coils  of  lava 
on  the  sides  of  a  quiescent  volcano.  They  are  so  well- 
worn  and  familiar  to  our  ears  that  they  create  but 
vague  conceptions  in  our  minds,  and  they  seem  to 
many  of  us  to  be  far  away  from  a  bearing  upon  our 
daily  lives.  But  you  much  mistake  Paul  if  you  take 
him  to  be  a  mere  theological  writer.  He  is  an  earnest 
evangelist,  trying  to  draw  men  to  love  and  trust  in 
Jesus  Christ.  And  his  writings,  however  old-fashioned 
and  doctrinally  hard  they  may  seem  to  you,  are  all 


V.21]         THE  WARRING  QUEENS  105 

throbbing  with  life — instinct  with  truths  that  belong 
to  all  ages  and  places,  and  which  fit  close  to  every  one 
of  us. 

I  do  not  know  if  I  can  give  any  kind  of  freshness  to 
these  words,  but  I  wish  to  try.  To  begin  with,  I  notice 
the  highly  -  imaginative  and  picturesque  form  into 
which  the  Apostle  casts  his  thoughts  here.  He,  as  it 
were,  draws  back  a  curtain,  and  lets  us  see  two  royal 
figures,  which  are  eternally  opposed  and  dividing  the 
dominion  between  them.  Then  he  shows  us  the  issues 
to  which  these  two  rulers  respectively  conduct  their 
subjects;  and  the  question  that  is  trembling  on  his 
lips  is  'Under  which  of  them  do  you  stand?'  Surely 
that  is  not  fossil  theology,  but  truths  that  are  of  the 
highest  importance,  and  ought  to  be  of  the  deepest 
interest,  to  every  one  of  us.  They  are  to  you  the 
former,  whether  they  are  the  latter  or  not. 

I.  So,  first,  look  at  the  two  Queens  who  rule  over 
human  life. 

Sin  and  Grace  are  both  personified;  and  they  are 
both  conceived  of  as  female  figures,  and  both  as  exercis- 
ing dominion.  They  stand  face  to  face,  and  each  recog- 
nises as  her  enemy  the  other.  The  one  has  established 
her  dominion :  •  Sin  hath  reigned.'  The  other  is  fight- 
ing to  establish  hers :  '  That  Grace  might  reign.'  And 
the  struggle  is  going  on  between  them,  not  only  on 
the  wide  field  of  the  world ;  but  in  the  narrow  lists  of 
the  heart  of  each  of  us. 

Sin  reigns.  The  truths  that  underlie  that  solemn 
picture  are  plain  enough,  however  unwelcome  they 
may  be  to  some  of  us,  and  however  remote  from  the 
construction  of  the  universe  which  many  of  us  are 
disposed  to  take. 

Now,  let  us  understand  our  terms.    Suppose  a  man 


106         EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS     [ch.  v. 

commits  a  theft.  You  may  describe  it  from  three 
different  points  of  view.  He  has  thereby  broken  the 
law  of  the  land;  and  when  we  are  thinking  about 
that  we  call  it  crime.  He  has  also  broken  the  law  of 
*  morality,'  as  we  call  it ;  and  when  we  are  looking  at 
his  deed  from  that  point  of  view,  we  call  it  vice.  Is 
that  all?  He  has  broken  something  else.  He  has 
broken  the  law  of  God ;  and  when  we  look  at  it  from 
that  point  of  view  we  call  it  sin.  Now,  there  are  a 
great  many  things  which  are  sins  that  are  not  crimes ; 
and,  with  due  limitations,  I  might  venture  to  say  that 
there  are  some  things  which  are  sins  that  are  not 
to  be  qualified  as  vices.  Sin  implies  God.  The  Psalmist 
was  quite  right  when  he  said ;  '  Against  Thee,  Thee 
only  have  I  sinned ' ;  although  he  was  confessing  a  foul 
injury  he  had  done  to  Bathsheba,  and  a  glaring  crime 
that  he  had  committed  against  Uriah.  It  was  as  to 
God,  and  in  reference  to  Him  only,  that  his  crime  and 
his  vice  darkened  and  solidified  into  sin. 

And  what  is  it,  in  our  actions  or  in  ourselves  con- 
sidered in  reference  to  God,  that  makes  our  actions 
sins  and  ourselves  sinners?  Remember  the  prodigal 
son.  'Father!  Give  me  the  portion  of  goods  that 
falleth  to  me.'  There  you  have  it  all.  He  went  away, 
and  '  wasted  his  substance  in  riotous  living.'  To  claim 
myself  for  my  own;  to  act  independently  of,  or 
contrary  to,  the  will  of  God;  to  try  to  shake  myself 
clear  of  Him ;  to  have  nothing  to  do  with  Him,  even 
though  it  be  by  mere  forgetfulness  and  negligence, 
and,  in  all  my  ways  to  comport  myself  as  if  I  had  no 
relations  of  dependence  on  and  submission  to  him 
— that  is  sin.  And  there  may  be  that  oblivion  or  re- 
bellion, not  only  in  the  gross  vulgar  acts  which  the  law 
calls  crimes,  or  in  those  which  conscience  declares  to  be 


V.  21]         THE  WARRING  QUEENS  107 

vices,  but  also  in  many  things  which,  looked  at  from  a 
lower  point  of  view,  may  be  fair  and  pure  and  noble. 
If  there  is  this  assertion  of  self  in  them,  or  oblivion  of 
God  and  His  will  in  them,  I  know  not  how  we  are  to 
escape  the  conclusion  that  even  these  fall  under  the 
class  of  sins.  For  there  can  be  no  act  or  thought,  truly 
worthy  of  a  man,  situated  and  circumstanced  as  we 
are,  which  has  not,  for  the  very  core  and  animating 
motive  of  it,  a  reference  to  God. 

Now,  when  I  come  and  say,  as  my  Bible  teaches  me 
to  say,  that  this  is  the  deepest  view  of  the  state  of 
humanity  that  sin  reigns,  I  do  not  wish  to  fall  into  the 
exaggerations  by  which  sometimes  that  statement  has 
been  darkened  and  discredited ;  but  I  do  want  to  press 
upon  you,  dear  brethren,  this,  as  a  matter  of  ^personal 
experience,  that  wherever  there  is  a  heart  that  loves, 
and  leaves  God  out,  and  wherever  there  is  a  will  that 
resolves,  determines,  impels  to  action,  and  does  not 
bow  itself  before  Him,  and  wherever  there  are  hands 
that  labour,  or  feet  that  run,  at  tasks  and  in  paths 
self-chosen  and  unconsecrated  by  reference  to  our 
Father  in  heaven,  no  matter  how  great  and  beautiful 
subsidiary  lustres  may  light  up  their  deeds,  the  very 
heart  of  them  all  is  transgression  of  the  law  of  God. 
For  this,  and  nothing  else  or  less,  is  His  law :  '  Thou 
shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and 
with  all  thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy  strength,  and  with 
all  thy  mind.'  I  do  not  charge  you  with  crimes. 
You  know  how  far  it  would  be  right  to  charge  you 
with  vices.  I  do  not  charge  you  with  anything ;  but 
I  pray  you  to  come  with  me  and  confess :  '  We  all  have 
sinned,  and  come  short  of  the  glory  of  God.' 

I  suppose  I  need  not  dwell  upon  the  difficulty  of 
getting  a  lodgment  for  this  conviction  in  men's  hearts. 


108         EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS     [ch.  v. 

There  is  no  sadder,  and  no  more  conclusive  proof,  of 
the  tremendous  power  of  sin  over  us,  than  that  it  has 
lulled  us  into  unconsciousness,  hard  to  be  broken,  of 
its  own  presence  and  existence.  You  remember  the 
old  stories — I  suppose  there  is  no  truth  in  them,  but 
they  will  do  for  an  illustration — about  some  kind  of  a 
blood-sucking  animal  that  perched  upon  a  sleeping 
man,  and  with  its  leathern  wings  fanned  him  into 
deeper  drowsiness  whilst  it  drew  from  him  his  life- 
blood.  That  is  what  this  hideous  Queen  does  for  men. 
She  robes  herself  in  a  dark  cloud,  and  sends  out  her 
behests  from  obscurity.  And  men  fancy  that  they  are 
free  whilst  all  the  while  they  are  her  servants.  Oh, 
dear  brethren!  you  may  call  this  theology,  but  it  is 
a  simple  statement  of  the  facts  of  our  condition.  '  Sin 
hath  reigned.' 

And  now  turn  to  the  other  picture,  *  Grace  might 
reign.'  Then  there  is  an  antagonistic  power  that  rises 
up  to  confront  the  widespread  dominion  of  this  anarch 
of  old.  And  this  Queen  comes  with  twenty  thousand 
to  war  against  her  that  has  but  ten  thousand  on  her 
side. 

Again  I  say,  let  us  understand  our  terms.  I  suppose, 
there  are  few  of  the  keywords  of  the  New  Testament 
which  have  lost  more  of  their  radiance,  like  quicksilver, 
by  exposure  in  the  air  during  the  centuries  than  that 
great  word  Grace,  which  is  always  on  the  lips  of  this 
Apostle,  and  to  him  had  music  in  its  sound,  and  which 
to  us  is  a  piece  of  dead  doctrine,  associated  with  certain 
high  Calvinistic  theories  which  we  enlightened  people 
have  long  ago  grown  beyond,  and  got  rid  of.  Perhaps 
Paul  was  more  right  than  we  when  his  heart  leaped 
up  within  him  at  the  very  thought  of  all  which  he 
saw  to  lie  palpitating  and  throbbing  with  eager  desire 


V.21]         THE  WARRING  QUEENS  109 

to  bless  men,  in  that  great  word.  What  does  he  mean 
by  it  ?  Let  me  put  it  into  the  shortest  possible  terms. 
This  antagonist  Queen  is  nothing  but  the  love  of  God 
raying,  out  for  ever  to  us  inferior  creatures,  who, 
by  reason  of  our  sinfulness,  have  deserved  something 
widely  different.  Sin  stands  there,  a  hideous  hag, 
though  a  queen ;  Grace  stands  here,  '  in  all  her  gestures 
dignity  and  love,'  fair  and  self -communicative,  though 
a  sovereign.  The  love  of  God  in  exercise  to  sinful 
men :  that  is  what  the  New  Testament  means  by  grace. 
And  is  it  not  a  great  thought  ? 

Notice,  for  further  elucidation  of  the  Apostle's  con- 
ception, how  he  sacrifices  the  verbal  correctness  of  his 
antithesis  in  order  to  get  to  the  real  opposition.  What 
is  the  opposite  of  Sin  ?  Righteousness.  Why  does  he 
not  say,  then,  that  'as  Sin  hath  reigned  unto  death, 
even  so  might  Righteousness  reign  unto  life '  ?  Why  ? 
Because  it  is  not  man,  or  anything  in  man,  that  can 
be  the  true  antagonist  of,  and  victor  over,  the  regnant 
Sin  of  humanity ;  but  God  Himself  comes  into  the  field, 
and  only  He  is  the  foe  that  Sin  dreads.  That  is  to  say, 
the  only  hope  for  a  sin-tyrannised  world  is  in  the  out- 
throb  of  the  love  of  the  great  heart  of  God.  For, 
notice  the  weapon  with  which  He  fights  man's  trans- 
gression, if  I  may  vary  the  figure  for  a  moment.  It  is 
only  subordinately  punishment,  or  law,  or  threatening, 
or  the  revelation  of  the  wickedness  of  the  transgression. 
All  these  have  their  places,  but  they  are  secondary 
places.  The  thing  that  will  conquer  a  world's  wicked- 
ness is  nothing  else  but  the  manifested  love  of  God. 
Only  the  patient  shining  down  of  the  sun  will  ever 
melt  the  icebergs  that  float  in  all  our  hearts.  And 
wonderful  and  blessed  it  is  to  think  that,  in  whatsoever 
aspects  man's  sin  may  have  been  an  interruption  and  a 


no         EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS     [ch.  v. 

contradiction  of  the  divine  purpose,  out  of  the  evil  has 
come  a  good;  that  the  more  obdurate  and  universal 
the  rebellion,  the  more  has  it  evoked  a  deeper  and  more 
wondrous  tenderness.  The  blacker  the  thundercloud, 
the  brighter  glows  the  rainbow  that  is  flung  across  it. 
So  these  two  front  each  other,  the  one  settled  in  her 
established  throne — 

'  Fierce  as  ten  furies,  terrible  as  hell — ' 

the  other  coming  on  her  adventurous  errand  to  conquer 
the  world  to  herself,  and  to  banish  the  foul  tyranny 
under  which  men  groan.  '  Sin  hath  reigned.'  Grace  is 
on  her  way  to  her  dominion. 

II.  Notice  the  gifts  of  these  two  Queens  to  their 
subjects. 

'Sin  hath  reigned  in  death'  (as  the  accurate  trans- 
lation has  it) ;  *  Grace  reigns  unto  eternal  life.'  The 
one  has  established  her  dominion,  and  its  results  are 
wrought  out,  her  reign  is,  as  it  were,  a  reign  in  a 
cemetery;  and  her  subjects  are  dead.  If  you  want  a 
modern  instance  to  illustrate  an  ancient  saw,  think  of 
Armenia.  There  is  a  reign  whose  gifts  to  its  subjects 
are  death.  Sin  reigns,  says  Paul,  and  for  proof  points 
to  the  fact  that  men  die. 

Now,  I  am  not  going  to  enter  into  the  question  here, 
and  now,  whether  physical  death  passes  over  mankind 
because  of  the  fact  of  transgression.  I  do  not  suppose 
that  this  is  so.  But  I  ask  you  to  remember  that 
when  the  Bible  says  that '  Death  passed  upon  all  men, 
for  all  have  sinned,'  it  does  not  merely  mean  the 
physical  fact  of  dissolution,  but  it  means  that  fact 
along  with  the  accompaniments  of  it,  and  the  fore- 
runners of  it,  in  men's  consciences.  *  The  sting  of  death 
is  sin,'  says  Paul,  in  another  place.    By  which  he  im- 


V.21]         THE  WARRING  QUEENS  111 

plies,  I  presume,  that,  if  it  were  not  for  the  fact  of 
alienation  from  God  and  opposition  to  His  holy  will, 
men  might  lie  down  and  die  as  placidly  as  an  animal 
does,  and  might  strip  themselves  for  it  *  as  for  a  bed, 
that  longing  they'd  been  sick  for.'  No  doubt,  there 
was  death  in  the  world  long  before  there  were  men  in 
it.  No  doubt,  also,  the  complex  whole  phenomenon 
gets  its  terror  from  the  fact  of  men's  sin. 

But  it  is  not  so  much  that  physical  fact  with  its 
accompaniments  which  Paul  is  thinking  about  when 
he  says  that  'sin  reigns  in  death,'  as  it  is  that  solemn 
truth  which  he  is  always  reiterating,  and  which  I  pray 
you,  dear  friends,  to  lay  to  heart,  that,  whatever 
activity  there  may  be  in  the  life  of  a  man  who  has  rent 
himself  away  from  dependence  upon  God — however 
vigorous  his  brain,  however  active  his  hand,  however 
full  charged  with  other  interests  his  life,  in  the  very 
depth  of  it  it  is  a  living  death,  and  the  right  name  for 
it  is  death.  So  this  is  Sin's  gift — that  over  our  whole 
nature  there  come  mortality  and  decay,  and  that  they 
who  live  as  her  subjects  are  dead  whilst  they  live. 
Dear  brethren,  that  may  be  figurative,  but  it  seems  to 
me  that  it  is  absurd  for  you  to  turn  away  from  such 
thoughts,  shrug  your  shoulders,  and  say, '  Old-fashioned 
Calvinistic  theology ! '  It  is  simply  putting  into  a  vivid 
form  the  facts  of  your  life  and  of  your  condition  in 
relation  to  God,  if  you  are  subjects  of  Sin. 

Then,  on  the  other  hand,  the  other  queenly  figure 
has  her  hands  filled  with  one  great  gift  which,  like  the 
fatal  bestowment  which  Sin  gives  to  her  subjects,  has 
two  aspects,  a  present  and  a  future  one.  Life,  which 
is  given  in  our  redemption  from  Death  and  Sin,  and  in 
union  with  God ;  that  is  the  present  gift  that  the  love 
of  God  holds  out  to  every  one  of  us.    That  life,  in  its 


112         EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS     [oh.  v. 

very  incompleteness  here,  carries  in  itself  the  prophecy 
of  its  own  completion  hereafter,  in  a  higher  form  and 
world,  just  as  truly  as  the  bud  is  the  prophet  of  the 
flower  and  of  the  fruit ;  just  as  truly  as  a  half -reared 
building  is  the  prophecy  of  its  own  completion  when 
the  rooftree  is  put  upon  it.  The  men  that  here  have, 
as  we  all  may  have  if  we  choose,  the  gift  of  life  eternal 
in  the  knowledge  of  God  through  Jesus  Christ  His 
Son,  must  necessarily  tend  onwards  and  upwards  to  a 
region  where  Death  is  beneath  the  horizon,  and  Life 
flows  and  flushes  the  whole  heaven.  Brother !  do  you 
put  out  your  whole  hand  to  take  the  poisoned  gift 
from  the  claw-like  hand  of  that  hideous  Queen  ;  or  do 
you  turn  and  take  the  gift  of  life  eternal  from  the 
hands  of  the  queenly  Grace  ? 

III.  How  this  queenly  Grace  gives  her  gifts. 

You  observe  that  the  Apostle,  as  is  his  wont — I  was 
going  to  say — gets  himself  entangled  in  a  couple  of 
almost  parenthetical  or,  at  all  events,  subsidiary 
sentences.  I  suppose  when  he  began  to  write  he 
meant  to  say,  simply, '  as  Sin  hath  reigned  unto  death, 
so  Grace  might  reign  unto  life.'  But  notice  that  he 
inserts   two    qualifications :    '  through    righteousness,' 

*  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.'  What  does  he  mean 
by  these  ? 

He  means  this,  first,  that  even  that  great  love  of 
God,  coming  throbbing  straight  from  His  heart,  cannot 
give  eternal  life  as  a  mere  matter  of  arbitrary  will. 
God  can  make  His  sun  to  shine  and  His  rain  to  fall, 

•  on  the  unthankful  and  on  the  evil,'  and  if  God  could, 
God  would  give  eternal  life  to  everybody,  bad  and  good ; 
but  He  cannot.  There  must  be  righteousness  if  there 
is  to  be  life.  Just  as  sin's  fruit  is  death,  the  fruit  of 
righteousness  is  life. 


T.21]         THE  WARRING  QUEENS  113 

He  means,  in  the  next  place,  that  whilst  there  is  no 
life  without  righteousness,  there  is  no  righteousness 
without  God's  gift.  You  cannot  break  away  from  the 
dominion  of  Sin,  and,  as  it  were,  establish  yourselves 
in  a  little  fortress  of  your  own,  repelling  her  assaults 
by  any  power  of  yours.  Dear  brethren,  we  cannot 
undo  the  past;  we  cannot  strip  off  the  poisoned  gar- 
ment that  clings  to  our  limbs ;  we  can  mend  ourselves 
in  many  respects,  but  we  cannot  of  our  own  volition 
and  motion  clothe  ourselves  with  that  righteousness 
of  which  the  wearers  shall  be  worthy  to  *  pass  through 
the  gate  into  the  city.'  There  is  no  righteousness 
without  God's  gift. 

And  the  other  subsidiary  clause  completes  the 
thought:  'through  Christ.'  In  Him  is  all  the  grace, 
the  manifest  love,  of  God  gathered  together.  It  is  not 
diffused  as  the  nebulous  light  in  some  chaotic  incipient 
system,  but  it  is  gathered  into  a  sun  that  is  set  in  the 
centre,  in  order  that  it  may  pour  down  warmth  and 
life  upon  its  circling  planets.  The  grace  of  God  is  in 
Christ  Jesus  our  Lord.  In  Him  is  life  eternal ;  there- 
fore, if  we  desire  to  possess  it  we  must  possess  Him. 
In  Him  is  righteousness;  therefore,  if  we  desire  our 
own  foulness  to  be  changed  into  the  holiness  which 
shall  see  God,  we  must  go  to  Jesus  Christ.  Grace 
reigns  in  life,  but  it  is  life  through  righteousness, 
which  is  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord. 

So,  then,  brother,  my  message  and  my  petition  to 
each  of  you  are— knit  yourself  to  Him  by  faith  in  Him. 
Then  He  who  is  '  full  of  grace  and  truth '  will  come  to 
you;  and,  coming,  will  bring  in  His  hands  righteous- 
ness and  life  eternal.  If  only  we  rest  ourselves  on 
Him,  and  keep  ourselves  close  in  touch  with  Him; 
then  we  shall  be  delivered  from  the  tyranny  of  the 

H 


114         EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS    [ch.  vi. 

darkness,  and  translated  into  the  Kingdom  of  the  Son 
of  His  love. 


'THE  FORM  OF  TEACHING' 

'.  .  .  Te  have  obeyed  from  the  heart  that  form  of  doctrine  which  waa  delivered 
you.'— Romans  vi,  17. 

There  is  room  for  difference  of  opinion  as  to  what 
Paul  precisely  means  by  'form'  here.  The  word  so 
rendered  appears  in  English  as  type,  and  has  a  similar 
variety  of  meaning.  It  signifies  originally  a  mark 
made  by  pressure  or  impact;  and  then,  by  natural 
transitions,  a  mould,  or  more  generally  a  pattern  or 
example,  and  then  the  copy  of  such  an  example  or 
pattern,  or  the  cast  from  such  a  mould.  It  has  also 
the  other  meaning  which  its  English  equivalent  has 
taken  on  very  extensively  of  late  years,  such  as,  for 
instance,  you  find  in  expressions  like  *  An  English  type 
of  face,'  meaning  thereby  the  general  outline  which 
preserves  the  distinguishing  characteristics  of  a  thing. 
Now  we  may  choose  between  these  two  meanings  in 
our  text.  If  the  Apostle  means  type  in  the  latter  sense 
of  the  word,  then  the  rendering  'form'  is  adequate, 
and  he  is  thinking  of  the  Christian  teaching  which 
had  been  given  to  the  Roman  Christians  as  possessing 
certain  well-defined  characteristics  which  distinguished 
it  from  other  kinds  of  teaching— such,  for  instance,  as 
Jewish  or  heathen. 

But  if  we  take  the  other  meaning,  then  he  is,  in  true 
Pauline  fashion,  bringing  in  a  vivid  and  picturesque 
metaphor  to  enforce  his  thought,  and  is  thinking  of 
the  teaching  which  the  Roman  Christians  had  received 
as  being  a  kind  of  mould  into  which  they  were  thrown, 
a  pattern  to  which  they  were  to  be  conformed.    And 


V.17]      'THE  FORM  OF  TEACHING'        115 

that  that  is  his  meaning  seems  to  me  to  be  made  a 
little  more  probable  by  the  fact  that  the  last  words  of 
my  text  would  be  more  accurate  if  inverted,  and 
instead  of  reading,  as  the  Authorised  Version  does, 
'that  form  of  doctrine  which  was  delivered  you,'  we 
were  to  read,  as  the  Revised  Version  does,  *  that  form 
whereunto  ye  were  delivered.' 

If  this  be  the  general  meaning  of  the  words  before 
us,  there  are  three  thoughts  arising  from  them  to 
which  I  turn  briefly.  First,  Paul's  Gospel  was  a 
definite  body  of  teaching;  secondly,  that  teaching  is 
a  mould  for  conduct  and  character ;  lastly,  that  teach- 
ing therefore  demands  obedience.  Take,  then,  these 
three  thoughts. 

I.  First,  Paul's  Gospel  was  a  definite  body  of  teach- 
ing. 

Now  the  word  *  doctrine,'  which  is  employed  in  my 
text,  has,  in  the  lapse  of  years  since  the  Authorised 
Version  was  made,  narrowed  its  significance.  At  the 
date  of  our  Authorised  translation  '  doctrine '  was  pro- 
bably equivalent  to  'teaching,'  of  whatever  sort  it 
might  be.  Since  then  it  has  become  equivalent  to  a 
statement  of  abstract  principles,  and  that  is  not  at  all 
what  Paul  means.  He  does  not  mean  to  say  that  his 
gospel  was  a  form  of  doctrine  in  the  sense  of  being  a 
theological  system,  but  he  means  to  say  that  it  was  a 
body  of  teaching,  the  nature  of  the  teaching  not  being 
defined  at  all  by  the  word. 

Therefore  we  have  to  notice  that  the  great,  blessed 
peculiarity  of  the  Gospel  is  that  it  is  a  teaching,  not  of 
abstract  dry  principles,  but  of  concrete  historical  facts. 
From  these  principles  in  plenty  may  be  gathered,  but 
in  its  first  form  as  it  comes  to  men  fresh  from  God  it 
is  not  a  set  of  propositions,  but  a  history  of  deeds  that 


116         EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS    [ch.vi. 

were  done  upon  earth.  And,  therefore,  is  it  fitted  to 
be  the  food  of  every  soul  and  the  mould  of  every 
character. 

Jesus  Christ  did  not  come  and  talk  to  men  about 
God,  and  say  to  them  what  His  Apostles  afterwards 
said,  'God  is  love,'  but  He  lived  and  died,  and  that 
mainly  was  His  teaching  about  God.  He  did  not  come 
to  men  and  lay  down  a  theory  of  atonement  or  a 
doctrine  of  propitiation,  or  theology  about  sin  and  its 
relations  to  God,  but  He  went  to  the  Cross  and  gave 
Himself  for  us,  and  that  was  His  teaching  about 
sacrifice.  He  did  not  say  to  men  'There  is  a  future 
life,  and  it  is  of  such  and  such  a  sort,'  but  He  came  out 
of  the  grave  and  He  said  '  Touch  Me,  and  handle  Me. 
A  spirit  hath  not  flesh  and  bones,'  and  therefore  He 
brought  life  and  immortality  to  light,  by  no  empty 
words  but  by  the  solid  realities  of  facts.  He  did  not 
lecture  upon  ethics,  but  He  lived  a  perfect  human  life 
out  of  which  all  moral  principles  that  will  guide  human 
conduct  may  be  gathered.  And  so,  instead  of  present- 
ing us  with  a  hortus  siccus,  with  a  botanic  collection  of 
scientifically  arranged  and  dead  propositions.  He  led 
us  into  the  meadow  where  the  flowers  grow,  living  and 
fair.  His  life  and  death,  with  all  that  they  imply,  are 
the  teaching. 

Let  us  not  forget,  on  the  other  hand,  that  the  history 
of  a  fact  is  not  the  mere  statement  of  the  outward 
thing  that  has  happened.  Suppose  four  people,  for 
instance,  standing  at  the  foot  of  Christ's  Cross;  four 
other  '  evangelists '  than  the  four  that  we  know.  There 
is  a  Roman  soldier ;  there  is  a  Pharisee ;  there  is  one 
of  the  weeping  crowd  of  poor  women,  not  disciples; 
and  there  is  a  disciple.  The  first  man  tells  the  fact  as 
he  saw  it :  'A  Jewish  rebel  was  crucified  this  morning.' 


V.17]      *THE  FORM  OF  TEACHING'       117 

The  second  man  tells  the  fact :  '  A  blaspheming  apos- 
tate suffered  what  he  deserved  to-day.'  The  woman 
tells  the  fact :  •  A  poor,  gentle,  fair  soul  was  martyred 
to-day.'  And  the  fourth  one  tells  the  fact :  '  Jesus 
Christ,  the  Son  of  God,  died  for  our  sins.'  The  three 
tell  the  same  fact;  the  fourth  preaches  the  Gospel — 
that  is  to  say,  Christian  teaching  is  the  facts  plus  their 
explanation ;  and  it  is  that  which  differentiates  it  from 
the  mere  record  which  is  of  no  avail  to  anybody.  So 
Paul  himself  in  one  of  his  other  letters  puts  it.  This  is 
his  gospel :  Jesus  of  Nazareth  *  died  for  oui^  sins  accord- 
ing to  the  Scriptures,  and  He  was  buried,  and  rose 
again  the  third  day,  according  to  the  Scriptures.'  That 
is  what  turns  the  bald  story  of  the  facts  into  teaching, 
which  is  the  mould  for  life. 

So  on  the  one  hand,  dear  brethren,  do  not  let  us  fall 
into  the  superficial  error  of  fancying  that  our  religion 
is  a  religion  of  emotion  and  morality  only.  It  is  a 
religion  with  a  basis  of  divine  truth,  which,  being 
struck  away,  all  the  rest  goes.  There  is  a  revolt 
against  dogma  to-day,  a  revolt  which  in  large  measure 
is  justified  as  an  essential  of  progress,  and  in  large 
measure  as  an  instance  of  progress  ;  but  human  nature 
is  ever  prone  to  extremes,  and  in  the  revolt  from  man's 
dogma  there  is  danger  of  casting  away  God's  truth. 
Christianity  is  not  preserved  when  we  hold  by  the  bare 
facts  of  the  outward  history,  unless  we  take  with  these 
facts  the  interpretation  of  them,  which  declares  the 
divinity  and  the  sacrifice  of  the  Son  of  God. 

And  on  the  other  hand,  let  us  keep  very  clear  in  our 
minds  the  broad  and  impassable  gulf  of  separation 
between  the  Christian  teaching  as  embodied  in  the 
Scripture  and  the  systems  which  Christianity  has 
evolved  therefrom.    Men's  intellects  must  work  upon 


118         EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS    [ch.vi. 

the  pabulum  that  is  provided  for  them,  and  a  theology 
in  a  systematised  form  is  a  necessity  for  the  intel- 
lectual and  reasonable  life  of  the  Christian  Church. 
But  there  is  all  the  difference  between  man's  inferences 
from  and  systematising  of  the  Christian  truth  and  the 
truth  that  lies  here.  The  one  is  the  golden  roof  that  is 
cast  over  us ;  the  other  is  too  often  but  the  spiders' 
webs  that  are  spun  across  and  darken  its  splendour. 
It  is  a  sign  of  a  wholesome  change  in  the  whole  senti- 
ment and  attitude  of  the  modern  Christian  m.ind  that 
the  word  'doctrine,'  which  has  come  to  mean  men's 
inferences  from  God's  truth,  should  have  been  sub- 
stituted as  it  has  been  in  our  Revised  Version  of  my 
text,  by  the  wholesome  Christian  word  *  teaching.'  The 
teaching  is  the  facts  with  the  inspired  commentary  on 
them. 

II.  Secondly,  notice  that  this  teaching  is  in  Paul's 
judgment  a  mould  or  pattern  according  to  which  men's 
lives  are  to  be  conformed. 

There  can  be  no  question  but  that,  in  that  teaching 
as  set  forth  in  Scripture,  there  does  lie  the  mightiest 
formative  power  for  shaping  our  lives,  and  emanci- 
pating us  from  our  evil. 

Christ  is  the  type,  the  mould  into  which  men  are  to 
be  cast.  The  Gospel,  as  presented  in  Scripture,  gives  us 
three  things.  It  gives  us  the  perfect  mould;  it  gives 
us  the  perfect  motive ;  it  gives  us  the  perfect  power. 
And  in  all  three  things  appears  its  distinctive  glory, 
apart  from  and  above  all  other  systems  that  have  ever 
tried  to  affect  the  conduct  or  to  mould  the  character 
of  man. 

In  Jesus  Christ  we  have  in  due  combination,  in 
perfect  proportion,  all  the  possible  excellences  of 
humanity.     As  in  other  cases  of  perfect  symmetry,  the 


V.17]      *THE  FORM  OF  TEACHING'        119 

very  precision  of  the  balanced  proportions  detracts 
from  the  apparent  magnitude  of  the  statue  or  of  the 
fair  building,  so  to  a  superficial  eye  there  is  but  little 
beauty  there  that  we  should  desire  Him,  but  as  we 
learn  to  know  Him,  and  live  nearer  to  Him,  and  get 
more  familiar  with  all  His  sweetness,  and  with  all  His 
power,  He  towers  before  us  in  ever  greater  and  yet 
never  repellent  or  exaggerated  magnitude,  and  never 
loses  the  reality  of  His  brotherhood  in  the  complete- 
ness of  His  perfection.  We  have  in  the  Christ  the  one 
type,  the  one  mould  and  pattern  for  all  striving,  the 
'glass  of  form,'  the  perfect  Man. 

And  that  likeness  is  not  reproduced  in  us  by  pressure 
or  by  a  blow,  but  by  the  slow  and  blessed  process  of 
gazing  until  we  become  like,  beholding  the  glory  until 
we  are  changed  into  the  glory. 

It  is  no  use  having  a  mould  and  metal  unless  you 
have  a  fire.  It  is  no  use  having  a  perfect  Pattern 
unless  you  have  a  motive  to  copy  it.  Men  do  not  go  to 
the  devil  for  want  of  examples ;  and  morality  is  not  at 
a  low  ebb  by  reason  of  ignorance  of  what  the  true  type 
of  life  is.  But  nowhere  but  in  the  full-orbed  teaching 
of  the  New  Testament  will  you  find  a  motive  strong 
enough  to  melt  down  all  the  obstinate  hardness  of  the 
'northern  iron'  of  the  human  will,  and  to  make  it 
plastic  to  His  hand.  If  we  can  say,  '  He  loved  me  and 
gave  Himself  for  me,'  then  the  sum  of  all  morality,  the 
old  commandment  that '  ye  love  one  another,'  receives 
a  new  stringency,  and  a  fresh  motive  as  well  as  a 
deepened  interpretation,  when  His  love  is  our  pattern. 
The  one  thing  that  will  make  men  willing  to  be  like 
Christ  is  their  faith  that  Christ  is  their  Sacrifice  and 
their  Saviour.  And  sure  I  am  of  this,  that  no  form  of 
mutilated  Christianity,  which  leaves  out  or  falteringly 


120         EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS    [ch.  vi. 

proclaims  the  truth  that  Christ  died  on  the  Cross  for 
the  sins  of  the  world,  will  ever  generate  heat  enough 
to  mould  men's  wills,  or  kindle  motives  powerful 
enough  to  lead  to  a  life  of  growing  imitation  of  and 
resemblance  to  Him.  The  dial  may  be  all  right,  the 
hours  most  accurately  marked  in  their  proper  places, 
every  minute  registered  on  the  circle,  the  hands  may 
be  all  right,  delicately  fashioned,  truly  poised,  but  if 
there  is  no  main- spring  inside,  dial  and  hands  are  of 
little  use,  and  a  Christianity  which  says,  '  Christ  is 
the  Teacher ;  do  you  obey  Him  ? '  is  as  impotent  as  the 
dial  face  with  the  broken  main-spring.  What  we 
need,  and  what,  thank  God,  in  '  the  teaching '  we  have, 
is  the  pattern  brought  near  to  us,  and  the  motive  for 
imitating  the  pattern,  set  in  motion  by  the  great 
thought, '  He  loved  me  and  gave  Himself  for  me.' 

Still  further,  the  teaching  is  a  power  to  fashion  life, 
inasmuch  as  it  brings  with  it  a  gift  which  secures  the 
transformation  of  the  believer  into  the  likeness  of  his 
Lord.  Part  of  *  the  teaching '  is  the  fact  of  Pentecost ; 
part  of  the  teaching  is  the  fact  of  the  Ascension  ;  and 
the  consequence  of  the  Ascension  and  the  sure  promise 
of  the  Pentecost  is  that  all  who  love  Him,  and  wait 
upon  Him,  shall  receive  into  their  hearts  the  '  Spirit  of 
life  in  Christ  Jesus  '  which  shall  make  them  free  from 
the  law  of  sin  and  death. 

So,  dear  friends,  on  the  one  hand,  let  us  remember 
that  our  religion  is  meant  to  work,  that  we  have 
nothing  in  our  creed  that  should  not  be  in  oar  char- 
acter, that  all  our  credenda  are  to  be  our  agenda; 
everything  believed  to  be  something  done ;  and  that  if 
we  content  ourselves  with  the  simple  acceptance  of  the 
teaching,  and  make  no  effort  to  translate  that  teaching 
into  life,  we  are  hypocrites  or  self-deceivers. 


V.17]      *THE  FORM  OF  TEACHING'        121 

And,  on  the  other  hand,  do  not  let  us  forget  that 
religion  is  the  soul  of  which  morality  is  the  body,  and 
that  it  is  impossible  in  the  nature  of  things  that  you 
shall  ever  get  a  true,  lofty,  moral  life  which  is  not 
based  upon  religion.  I  do  not  say  that  men  cannot  be 
sure  of  the  outlines  of  their  duty  without  Christianity, 
though  I  am  free  to  confess  that  I  think  it  is  a  very 
maimed  and  shabby  version  of  human  duty,  which  is 
supplied,  minus  the  special  revelation  of  that  duty 
which  Christianity  makes;  but  my  point  is,  that  the 
knowledge  will  not  work  without  the  Gospel. 

The  Christian  type  of  character  is  a  distinct  and 
manifestly  separate  thing  from  the  pagan  heroism  or 
from  the  virtues  and  the  righteousnesses  of  other 
systems.  Just  as  the  musician's  ear  can  tell,  by  half  a 
dozen  bars,  whether  that  strain  was  Beethoven's,  or 
Handel's,  or  Mendelssohn's,  just  as  the  trained  eye  can 
see  Rafifaelle's  magic  in  every  touch  of  his  pencil,  so 
Christ,  the  Teacher,  has  a  style ;  and  all  the  scholars  of 
His  school  carry  with  them  a  certain  mark  which  tells 
where  they  got  their  education  and  who  is  their 
Master,  if  they  are  scholars  indeed.  And  that  leads 
me  to  the  last  word. 

III.  This  mould  demands  obedience. 

By  the  very  necessity  of  things  it  is  so.  If  the 
'teaching'  was  but  a  teaching  of  abstract  truths  it 
would  be  enough  to  assent  to  them.  I  believe  that  the 
three  angles  of  a  triangle  are  equal  to  two  right  angles, 
and  I  have  done  my  duty  by  that  proposition  when  I 
have  said  '  Yes !  it  is  so.'  But  the  '  teaching '  which 
Jesus  Christ  gives  and  ^s,  needs  a  good  deal  more  than 
that.  By  the  very  nature  of  the  teaching,  assent  drags 
after  it  submission.  You  can  please  yourself  whether 
you  let  Jesus  Christ  into  your  minds  or  not,  but  if  you 


122         EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS    [ch.  vi. 

do  let  Him  in,  He  will  be  Master.  There  is  no  such 
thing  as  taking  Him  in  and  not  obeying. 

And  so  the  requirement  of  the  Gospel  which  we  call 
faith  has  in  it  quite  as  much  of  the  element  of  obedience 
as  of  the  element  of  trust.  And  the  presence  of  that 
element  is  just  what  makes  the  difference  between  a 
sham  and  a  real  faith.  '  Faith  which  has  not  works  is 
dead,  being  alone.'  A  faith  which  is  all  trust  and  no 
obedience  is  neither  trust  nor  obedience. 

And  that  is  why  so  many  of  us  do  not  care  to  yield 
ourselves  to  the  faith  that  is  in  Jesus  Christ.  If  it 
simply  came  to  us  and  said,  '  If  you  will  trust  Me  you 
will  get  pardon,'  I  fancy  there  would  be  a  good  many 
more  of  us  honest  Christians  than  are  so.  But  Christ 
comes  and  says,  *  Trust  Me,  follow  Me,  and  take  Me  for 
your  Master;  and  be  like  Me,'  and  one's  will  kicks, 
and  one's  passions  recoil,  and  a  thousand  of  the  devil's 
servants  within  us  prick  their  ears  up  and  stiffen  their 
backs  in  remonstrance  and  opposition.  'Submit'  is 
Christ's  first  word  ;  submit  by  faith,  submit  in  love. 

That  heart  obedience,  which  is  the  requirement  of 
Christianity,  means  freedom.  The  Apostle  draws  a 
wonderful  contrast  in  the  context  between  the  slavery 
to  lust  and  sin,  and  the  freedom  which  comes  from 
obedience  to  God  and  to  righteousness.  Obey  the 
Truth,  and  the  Truth,  in  your  obeying,  shall  make  you 
free,  for  freedom  is  the  willing  submission  to  the 
limitations  which  are  best.  '  I  will  walk  at  liberty  for 
I  keep  Thy  precepts.'  Take  Christ  for  your  Master,  and, 
being  His  servants,  you  are  your  own  masters,  and  the 
world's  to  boot.  For  'all  things  are  yours  if  ye  are 
Christ's.'  Refuse  to  bow  your  necks  to  that  yoke  which 
is  easy,  and  to  take  upon  your  shoulders  that  burden 
which  is  light,  and  you  do  not  buy  liberty,  though  you 


V.17]  *THY  FREE  SPIRIT*  123 

buy  licentiousness,  for  you  become  the  slaves  and 
downtrodden  vassals  of  the  world  and  the  flesh  and 
the  devil,  and  while  you  promise  yourselves  liberty, 
you  become  the  bondsmen  of  corruption.  Oh !  then, 
let  us  obey  from  the  heart  that  mould  of  teaching  to 
which  we  are  delivered,  and  so  obeying,  we  shall  be 
free  indeed. 


•THY  FREE  SPIRIT' 

'  The  law  of  the  Spirit  of  life  in  Christ  Jeeus  hath  made  me  free  from  the  law  of 
sin  and  death.'— Romans  viii.  2. 

We  have  to  distinguish  two  meanings  of  law.  In  the 
stricter  sense,  it  signifies  the  authoritative  expres- 
sions of  the  will  of  a  ruler  proposed  for  the  obedience 
of  man ;  in  the  wider,  almost  figurative  sense,  it  means 
nothing  more  than  the  generalised  expression  of  con- 
stant similar  facts.  For  instance,  objects  attract  one 
another  in  certain  circumstances  with  a  force  which 
in  the  same  circumstances  is  always  the  same.  When 
that  fact  is  stated  generally,  we  get  the  law  of  gravita- 
tion. Thus  the  word  comes  to  mean  little  more  than 
a  regular  process.  In  our  text  the  word  is  used  in  a 
sense  much  nearer  the  latter  than  the  former  of  these 
two.  'The  law  of  sin  and  of  death'  cannot  mean  a 
series  of  commandments ;  it  certainly  does  not  mean 
the  Mosaic  law.  It  must  either  be  entirely  figurative, 
taking  sin  and  death  as  two  great  tyrants  who 
domineer  over  men ;  or  it  must  mean  the  continuous 
action  of  these  powers,  the  process  by  which  they 
work.  These  two  come  substantially  to  the  same 
idea.  The  law  of  sin  and  of  death  describes  a  certain 
constancy  of  operation,  uniform  and  fixed,  under  the 


124        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.viu. 

dominion  of  which  men  are  struggling.  But  there  is 
another  constancy  of  operation,  uniform  and  fixed 
too,  a  mighty  antagonistic  power,  which  frees  from  the 
dominion  of  the  former :  it  is  '  the  law  of  the  Spirit 
of  life  in  Christ  Jesus.' 

I.  The  bondage. 

The  Apostle  is  speaking  about  himself  as  he  was,  and 
we  have  our  own  consciousness  to  verify  his  transcript 
of  his  own  personal  experience.  Paul  had  found  that, 
by  an  inexorable  iron  sequence,  sin  worked  in  himself 
the  true  death  of  the  soul,  in  separation  from  God,  in 
the  extinction  of  good  and  noble  capacities,  in  the 
atrophying  of  all  that  was  best  in  himself,  in  the  death 
of  joy  and  peace.  And  this  iron  sequence  he,  with  an 
eloquent  paradox,  calls  a  'law,'  though  its  very 
characteristic  is  that  it  is  lawless  transgression  of  the 
true  law  of  humanity.  He  so  describes  it,  partly, 
because  he  would  place  emphasis  on  its  dominion  over 
us.  Sin  rules  with  iron  sway  ;  men  madly  obey  it,  and 
even  when  they  think  themselves  free,  are  under  a 
bitter  tyranny.  Further,  he  desires  to  emphasise  the 
fact  that  sin  and  death  are  parts  of  one  process  which 
operates  constantly  and  uniformly.  This  dark  anarchy 
and  wild  chaos  of  disobedience  and  transgression  has 
its  laws.  All  happens  there  according  to  rule.  Rigid 
and  inevitable  as  the  courses  of  the  stars,  or  the  fall 
of  the  leaf  from  the  tree,  is  sin  hurrying  on  to  its 
natural  goal  in  death.  In  this  fatal  dance,  sin  leads  in 
death ;  the  one  fair  spoken  and  full  of  dazzling 
promises,  the  other  in  the  end  throws  off  the  mask, 
and  slays.  It  is  true  of  all  who  listen  to  the  tempting 
voice,  and  the  deluded  victim  'knows  not  that  the 
dead  are  there,  and  that  her  guests  are  in  the  depth 
of  hell.' 


V.2]  *THY  FREE  SPIRIT'  125 

II.  The  method  of  deliverance. 

The  previous  chapter  sounded  the  depths  of  human 
impotence,  and  showed  the  tragic  impossibility  of 
human  efforts  to  strip  off  the  poisoned  garment.  Here 
the  Apostle  tells  the  wonderful  story  of  how  he  himself 
was  delivered,  in  the  full  rejoicing  confidence  that 
what  availed  for  his  emancipation  would  equally  avail 
for  every  captived  soul.  Because  he  himself  has  ex- 
perienced a  divine  power  which  breaks  the  dreadful 
sequence  of  sin  and  of  death,  he  knows  that  every  soul 
may  share  in  the  experience.  No  mere  outward  means 
will  be  sufficient  to  emancipate  a  spirit ;  no  merely 
intellectual  methods  will  avail  to  set  free  the  passions 
and  desires  which  have  been  captured  by  sin.  It  is 
vain  to  seek  deliverance  from  a  perverted  will  by  any 
republication,  however  emphatic,  of  a  law  of  duty. 
Nothing  can  touch  the  necessities  of  the  case  but  a 
gift  of  power  which  becomes  an  abiding  influence  in 
us,  and  develops  a  mightier  energy  to  overcome  the 
evil  tendencies  of  a  sinful  soul. 

That  communicated  power  must  impart  life.  Nothing 
short  of  a  Spirit  of  life,  quick  and  powerful,  with  an 
immortal  and  intense  energy,  will  avail  to  meet  the 
need.  Such  a  Spirit  must  give  the  life  which  it  pos- 
sesses, must  quicken  and  bring  into  action  dormant 
powers  in  the  spirit  that  it  would  free.  It  must 
implant  new  energies  and  directions,  new  motives, 
desires,  tastes,  and  tendencies.  It  must  bring  into 
play  mightier  attractions  to  neutralise  and  deaden 
existing  ones;  as  when  to  some  chemical  compound 
a  substance  is  added  which  has  a  stronger  affinity  for 
one  of  the  elements,  a  new  thing  is  made. 

Paul's  experience,  which  he  had  a  right  to  cast  into 
general  terms  and  potentially  to  extend  to  all  mankind, 


126        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.viii. 

had  taught  him  that  such  a  new  life  for  such  a  spirit 
had  come  to  him.  by  union  with  Jesus  Christ.  Such  a 
union,  deep  and  mystical  as  it  is,  is,  thank  God,  an  ex- 
perience universal  in  all  true  Christians,  and  consti- 
tutes the  very  heart  of  the  Gospel  which  Paul  rejoiced 
to  believe  was  entrusted  to  his  hands  for  the  world.  His 
great  message  of  '  Christ  in  us  '  has  been  wof ully  cur- 
tailed and  mangled  when  his  other  message  of  '  Christ 
for  us '  has  been  taken,  as  it  too  often  has  been,  to  be 
the  whole  of  his  Gospel.  They  who  take  either  of 
these  inseparable  elements  to  be  the  whole,  rend  into 
two  imperfect  halves  the  perfect  oneness  of  the  Gospel 
of  Christ. 

We  are  often  told  that  Paul  was  the  true  author 
of  Christian  doctrine,  and  are  bidden  to  go  back  from 
him  to  Jesus.  If  we  do  so,  we  hear  His  grave  sweet 
voice  uttering  in  the  upper-room  the  deep  words,  '  I 
am  the  Vine,  ye  are  the  branches ' ;  and,  surely,  Paul 
is  but  repeating,  without  metaphor,  what  Christ,  once 
for  all,  set  forth  in  that  lovely  emblem,  when  he  says 
that '  the  law  of  the  Spirit  of  life  in  Christ  Jesus  made 
me  free  from  the  law  of  sin  and  of  death.'  The 
branches  in  their  multitude  make  the  Vine  in  its  unity, 
and  the  sap  which  rises  from  the  deep  root  through 
the  brown  stem,  passes  to  every  tremulous  leaf,  and 
brings  bloom  and  savour  into  every  cluster.  Jesus 
drew  His  emblem  from  the  noblest  form  of  vegetative 
life ;  Paul,  in  other  places,  draws  his  from  the  highest 
form  of  bodily  life,  when  he  points  to  the  many  mem- 
bers in  one  body,  and  the  Head  which  governs  all,  and 
says, '  So  also  is  Christ.'  In  another  place  he  points  to 
the  noblest  form  of  earthly  love  and  unity.  The 
blessed  fellowship  and  sacred  oneness  of  husband  and 
wife  are  an  emblem  sweet,  though  inadequate,  of  the 


V.2]  *THY  FREE  SPIRIT'  127 

fellowship  in  love  and  unity  of  spirit  between  Christ 
and  His  Church. 

And  all  this  mysterious  oneness  of  life  has  an  in- 
tensely practical  side.  In  Jesus,  and  by  union  with 
Him,  we  receive  a  power  that  delivers  from  sin  and 
arrests  the  stealthy  progress  of  sin's  follower,  death. 
Love  to  Him,  the  result  of  fellowship  with  Him,  and 
the  consequence  of  life  received  from  Him,  becomes 
the  motive  which  makes  the  redeemed  heart  delight  to 
do  His  will,  and  takes  all  the  power  out  of  every 
temptation.  We  are  in  Him,  and  He  in  us,  on  condi- 
tion, and  by  means,  of  our  humble  faith ;  and  because 
my  faith  thus  knits  me  to  Him  it  is  '  the  victory  that 
overcomes  the  world,'  and  breaks  the  chains  of  many 
sins.  So  this  communion  with  Jesus  Christ  is  the  way 
by  which  we  shall  increase  that  triumphant  spiritual 
life,  which  is  the  only  victorious  antagonist  of  the 
else  inevitable  consequence  which  declares  that  the 
'  soul  that  sinneth  it  shall  die,'  and  die  even  in  sinning. 

III.  The  process  of  the  deliverance. 

Following  the  R.V.  we  read  '  made  me  free,'  not '  hath 
made  me.'  The  reference  is  obviously,  as  the  Greek 
more  clearly  shows,  to  a  single  historical  event,  which 
some  would  take  to  be  the  Apostle's  baptism,  but 
which  is  more  properly  supposed  to  be  his  conversion. 
His  strong  bold  language  here  does  not  mean  that  he 
claims  to  be  sinless.  The  emancipation  is  effected, 
although  it  is  but  begun.  He  holds  that  at  that 
moment  when  Jesus  appeared  to  him  on  the  road  to 
Damascus,  and  he  yielded  to  Him  as  Lord,  his  deliver- 
ance was  real,  though  not  complete.  He  was  conscious 
of  a  real  change  of  position  in  reference  to  that  law  of 
sin  and  of  death.  Paul  distinguishes  between  the  true 
self  and  the  accumulation  of  selfish  and  sensual  habits 


128        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.viii. 

which  make  up  so  much  of  ourselves.  The  deeper  and 
purer  self  may  be  vitalised  in  will  and  heart,  and  set 
free  even  while  the  emancipation  is  not  worked  out  in 
the  life.  The  parable  of  the  leaven  applies  in  the 
individual  renewal ;  and  there  is  no  fanaticism,  and  no 
harm,  in  Paul's  point  of  view,  if  only  it  be  remembered 
that  sins  by  which  passion  and  externals  overbear  my 
better  self  are  mine  in  responsibility  and  in  conse- 
quences. Thus  guarded,  we  may  be  wholly  right  in 
thinking  of  all  the  evils  which  still  cleave  to  the 
renewed  Christian  soul  as  not  being  part  of  it,  but 
destined  to  drop  away. 

And  this  bold  declaration  is  to  be  vindicated  as  a 
prophetic  confidence  in  the  supremacy  and  ultimate 
dominion  of  the  new  power  which  works  even  through 
much  antagonism  in  an  imperfect  Christian.  Paul, 
too,  calls  'things  that  are  not  as  though  they  were.' 
If  my  spirit  of  life  is  the  'Spirit  of  life  in  Christ,'  it 
will  go  on  to  perfection.  It  is  Spirit,  therefore  it  is 
informing  and  conquering  the  material ;  it  is  a  divine 
Spirit,  therefore  it  is  omnipotent;  it  is  the  Spirit  of 
life,  leading  in  and  imparting  life  like  itself,  which  is 
kindred  with  it  and  is  its  source;  it  is  the  Spirit 
of  life  in  Christ,  therefore  leading  to  life  like  His, 
bringing  us  to  conformity  with  Him  because  the 
same  causes  produce  the  same  effects  ;  it  is  a  life  in 
Christ  having  a  law  and  regular  orderly  course  of 
development.  So,  just  as  if  we  have  the  germ  we  may 
hope  for  fruit,  and  can  see  the  infantile  oak  in  the 
tightly-shut  acorn,  or  in  the  egg  the  creature  which 
shall  afterwards  grow  there,  we  have  in  this  gift  of  the 
Spirit,  the  victory.  If  we  have  the  cause,  we  have  the 
effects  implicitly  folded  in  it ;  and  we  have  but  to  wait 
further  development. 


T.2]  *  THY  FREE  SPIRIT'  129 

The  Christian  life  is  to  be  one  long  effort,  partial,  and 
gradual,  to  unfold  the  freedom  possessed.  Paul  knew 
full  well  that  his  emancipation  was  not  perfect.  It 
was,  probably,  after  this  triumphant  expression  of  con- 
fidence that  he  wrote,  'Not  as  though  I  had  already 
attained,  either  were  already  perfect.'  The  first  stage 
is  the  gift  of  power,  the  appropriation  and  develop 
ment  of  that  power  is  the  work  of  a  life  ;  and  it  ought 
to  pass  through  a  well-marked  series  and  cycle  of 
growing  changes.  The  way  to  develop  it  is  by  con- 
stant application  to  the  source  of  all  freedom,  the  life- 
giving  Spirit,  and  by  constant  effort  to  conquer  sins 
and  temptations.  There  is  no  such  thing  in  the 
Christian  conflict  as  a  painless  development.  We  must 
mortify  the  deeds  of  the  body  if  we  are  to  live  in  the 
Spirit.  The  Christian  progress  has  in  it  the  nature  of 
a  crucifixion.  It  is  to  be  effort,  steadily  directed  for 
the  sake  of  Christ,  and  in  the  joy  of  His  Spirit,  to 
destroy  sin,  and  to  win  practical  holiness.  Homely 
moralities  are  the  outcome  and  the  test  of  all  pre- 
tensions to  spiritual  communion. 

We  are,  further,  to  perfect  holiness  in  the  fear  of  the 
Lord,  by  '  waiting  for  the  Redemption,'  which  is  not 
merely  passive  waiting,  but  active  expectation,  as  of 
one  who  stretches  out  a  welcoming  hand  to  an 
approaching  friend.  Nor  must  we  forget  that  this 
accomplished  deliverance  is  but  partial  whilst  upon 
earth.  '  The  body  is  dead  because  of  sin,  but  the  spirit 
is  life  because  of  righteousness.'  But  there  may  be 
indefinite  approximation  to  complete  deliverance. 
The  metaphors  in  Scripture  under  which  Christian 
progress  is  described,  whether  drawn  from  a  conflict  or 
a  race,  or  from  a  building,  or  from  the  growth  of  a 
tree,  all  suggest  the  idea  of  constant  advance  against 

I 


130        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.viii. 

hindrances,  which  yet,  constant  though  it  is,  does  not 
reach  the  goal  here.  And  this  is  our  noblest  earthly- 
condition — not  to  be  pure,  but  to  be  tending  towards  it 
and  conscious  of  impurity.  Hence  our  tempers  should 
be  those  of  humility,  strenuous  effort,  firm  hope.  We 
are  as  slaves  who  have  escaped,  but  are  still  in  the 
wilderness,  with  the  enemies'  dogs  baying  at  our  feet ; 
but  we  shall  come  to  the  land  of  freedom,  on  whose 
sacred  soil  sin  and  death  can  never  tread. 


CHRIST  CONDEMNING  SIN 

'For  what  the  law  could  not  do,  in  that  it  was  weak  through  the  flesh,  God 
sending  His  own  Son  in  the  likeness  of  sinful  flesh,  and  for  sin,  condemned  sin 
in  the  flesh.'— Romans  viii.  3. 

In  the  first  verse  of  this  chapter  we  read  that '  There 
is  no  condemnation  to  them  that  are  in  Christ  Jesus.' 
The  reason  of  that  is,  that  they  are  set  free  from  the 
terrible  sequence  of  cause  and  effect  which  constitutes 
*  the  law  of  sin  and  death ' ;  and  the  reason  why  they 
are  freed  from  that  awful  sequence  by  the  power  of 
Christ  is,  because  He  has  '  condemned  sin  in  the  flesh.' 
The  occurrence  of  the  two  words  'condemnation' 
(ver.  1)  and  '  condemned '  (ver.  3)  should  be  noted.  Sin  is 
personified  as  dwelling  in  the  flesh,  which  expression 
here  means,  not  merely  the  body,  but  unregenerate 
human  nature.  He  has  made  his  fortress  there,  and 
rules  over  it  all.  The  strong  man  keeps  his  house  and 
his  goods  are  in  peace.  He  laughs  to  scorn  the 
attempts  of  laws  and  moralities  of  all  sorts  to  cast 
him  out.  His  dominion  is  death  to  the  human  nature 
over  which  he  tyrannises.  Condemnation  is  inevitable 
to  the  men   over  whom  he  rules.     They  or  he  must 


V.3]  CHRIST  CONDEMNING  SIN         131 

perish.  If  he  escape  they  die.  If  he  could  be  slain 
they  might  live.  Christ  comes,  condemns  the  tyrant, 
and  casts  him  out.  So,  he  being  condemned,  we  are 
acquitted;  and  he  being  slain  there  is  no  death  for 
us.  Let  us  try  to  elucidate  a  little  further  this  great 
metaphor  by  just  pondering  the  two  points  prominent 
in  it — Sin  tyrannising  over  human  nature  and  resist- 
ing all  attempts  to  overcome  it,  and  Christ's  con- 
demnation and  casting  out  of  the  tyrant. 

I.  Sin  tyrannising  over  human  nature,  and  resisting 
all  attempts  to  overcome  it. 

Paul  is  generalising  his  own  experience  when  he 
speaks  of  the  condemnation  of  an  intrusive  alien 
force  that  holds  unregenerate  human  nature  in 
bondage.  He  is  writing  a  page  of  his  own  auto- 
biography, and  he  is  sure  that  all  the  rest  of  us  have 
like  pages  in  ours.  Heart  answereth  unto  heart  as  in 
a  mirror.  If  each  man  is  a  unity,  the  poison  must 
run  through  all  his  veins  and  affect  his  whole  nature. 
Will,  understanding,  heart,  must  all  be  affected  and 
each  in  its  own  way  by  the  intruder;  and  if  men 
are  a  collective  whole,  each  man's  experience  is 
repeated  in  his  brother's. 

The  Apostle  is  equally  transcribing  his  own  ex- 
perience when  in  the  text  he  sadly  admits  the  futility 
of  all  efforts  to  shake  the  dominion  of  sin.  He  has 
found  in  his  own  case  that  even  the  loftiest  revela- 
tion in  the  Mosaic  law  utterly  fails  in  the  attempt 
to  condemn  sin.  This  is  true  not  only  in  regard 
to  the  Mosaic  law  but  in  regard  to  the  law  of 
conscience,  and  to  moral  teachings  of  any  kind. 
It  is  obvious  that  all  such  laws  do  condemn  sin  in  the 
sense  that  they  solemnly  declare  God's  judgment  about 
it,  and  His  sentence  on  it;  but  in  the  sense  of  real 


132        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.  viii. 

condemnation,  or  casting  out,  and  depriving  sin  of  its 
power,  they  all  are  impotent.  The  law  may  deter 
from  overt  acts  or  lead  to  isolated  acts  of  obedience ; 
it  may  stir  up  antagonism  to  sin's  tyranny,  but  after 
that  it  has  no  more  that  it  can  do.  It  cannot  give 
the  purity  which  it  proclaims  to  be  necessary,  nor 
create  the  obedience  which  it  enjoins.  Its  thunders 
roll  terrors,  and  no  fruitful  rain  follows  them  to  soften 
the  barren  soil.  There  always  remains  an  unbridged 
gulf  between  the  man  and  the  law. 

And  this  is  what  Paul  points  to  in  saying  that  it 
•  was  weak  through  the  flesh.'  It  is  good  in  itself,  but 
it  has  to  work  through  the  sinful  nature.  The  only 
powers  to  which  it  can  appeal  are  those  which  are 
already  in  rebellion.  A  discrowned  king  whose  only 
forces  to  conquer  his  rebellious  subjects  are  the  rebels 
themselves,  is  not  likely  to  regain  his  crown.  Because 
law  brings  no  new  element  into  our  humanity,  its 
appeal  to  our  humanity  has  little  more  effect  than 
that  of  the  wind  whistling  through  an  archway.  It 
appeals  to  conscience  and  reason  by  a  plain  declaration 
of  what  is  right ;  to  will  and  understanding  by  an 
exhibition  of  authority;  to  fears  and  prudence  by 
plainly  setting  forth  consequences.  But  what  is  to 
be  done  with  men  who  know  what  is  right  but  have  no 
wish  to  do  it,  who  believe  that  they  ought  but  will 
not,  who  know  the  consequences  but  *  choose  rather 
the  pleasures  of  sin  for  a  season,'  and  shuffle  the 
future  out  of  their  minds  altogether  ?  This  is  the 
essential  weakness  of  all  law.  The  tyrant  is  not 
afraid  so  long  as  there  is  no  one  threatening  his  reign, 
but  the  unarmed  herald  of  a  discrowned  king.  His 
citadel  will  not  surrender  to  the  blast  of  the  trumpet 
blown  from  Sinai. 


V.  3]          CHRIST  CONDEMNING  SIN         133 

II.  Christ's  condemnation  and  casting  out  of  the 
tyrant. 

The  Apostle  points  to  a  triple  condemnation. 

•  In  the  likeness  of  sinful  flesh,'  Jesus  condemns  sin 
by  His  own  perfect  life.  That  phrase,  '  the  likeness  of 
the  flesh  of  sin,'  implies  the  real  humanity  of  Jesus, 
and  His  perfect  sinlessness ;  and  suggests  the  first  way 
in  which  He  condemns  sin  in  the  flesh.  In  His  life  He 
repeats  the  law  in  a  higher  fashion.  What  the  one 
spoke  in  words  the  other  realised  in  'loveliness  of 
perfect  deeds ' ;  and  all  men  own  that  example  is  the 
mightiest  preacher  of  righteousness,  and  that  active 
goodness  draws  to  itself  reverence  and  sways  men  to 
imitate.  But  that  life  lived  in  human  nature  gives  a 
new  hope  of  the  possibilities  of  that  nature  even  in 
us.  The  dream  of  perfect  beauty  '  in  the  flesh '  has 
been  realised.  What  the  Man  Christ  Jesus  was.  He 
was  that  we  may  become.  In  the  very  flesh  in  which 
the  tyrant  rules,  Jesus  shows  the  possibility  and  the 
loveliness  of  a  holy  life. 

But  this,  much  as  it  is,  is  not  all.  There  is  another 
way  in  which  Christ  condemns  sin  in  the  flesh,  and  that 
is  by  His  perfect  sacrifice.  To  this  also  Paul  points  in 
the  phrase, '  the  flesh  of  sin.'  The  example  of  which  we 
have  been  speaking  is  much,  but  it  is  weak  for  the  very 
same  reason  for  which  law  is  weak — that  it  operates 
only  through  our  nature  as  it  is;  and  that  is  not 
enough.  Sin's  hold  on  man  is  twofold — one  that  it 
has  perverted  his  relation  to  God,  and  another  that 
it  has  corrupted  his  nature.  Hence  there  is  in  him 
a  sense  of  separation  from  God  and  a  sense  of  guilt. 
Both  of  these  not  only  lead  to  misery,  but  positively 
tend  to  strengthen  the  dominion  of  sin.  The  leader 
of  the  mutineers  keeps  them  true  to  him  by  remind- 


134        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.  viii. 

ing  them  that  the  mutiny  laws  decree  death  without 
m.ercy.  Guilt  felt  may  drive  to  desperation  and  hope- 
less continuance  in  wrong.  The  cry, '  I  am  so  bad  that 
it  is  useless  to  try  to  be  better,'  is  often  heard.  Guilt 
stifled  leads  to  hardening  of  heart,  and  sometimes  to 
desire  and  riot.  Guilt  slurred  over  by  some  easy 
process  of  absolution  may  lead  to  further  sin.  Similarly 
separation  from  God  is  the  root  of  all  evil,  and  thoughts 
of  Him  as  hard  and  an  enemy,  always  lead  to  sin. 
So  if  the  power  of  sin  in  the  past  must  be  cancelled, 
the  sense  of  guilt  must  be  removed,  and  the  wall  of 
partition  between  man  and  God  thrown  down.  What 
can  law  answer  to  such  a  demand?  It  is  silent;  it 
can  only  say,  *  What  is  written  is  written.'  It  has  no 
word  to  speak  that  promises  '  the  blotting  out  of  the 
handwriting  that  is  against  us';  and  through  its 
silence  one  can  hear  the  mocking  laugh  of  the  tyrant 
that  keeps  his  castle. 

But  Christ  has  come  *for  sin';  that  is  to  say  His 
Incarnation  and  Death  had  relation  to,  and  had  it 
for  their  object  to  remove,  human  sin.  He  comes  to 
blot  out  the  evil,  to  bring  God's  pardon.  The  recogni- 
tion of  His  sacrifice  supplies  the  adequate  motive  to 
copy  His  example,  and  they  who  see  in  His  death 
God's  sacrifice  for  man's  sin,  cannot  but  yield  them- 
selves to  Him,  and  find  in  obedience  a  delight.  Love 
kindled  at  His  love  makes  likeness  and  transmutes 
the  outward  law  into  an  inward  '  spirit  of  life  in  Christ 
Jesus.' 

Still  another  way  by  which  God  'condemns  sin  in 
the  flesh'  is  pointed  to  by  the  remaining  phrase  of 
our  text,  'sending  His  own  Son.'  In  the  beginning 
of  this  epistle  Jesus  is  spoken  of  as  'being  declared 
to  be  the  Son  of  God  with   power  according  to  the 


V.3]  CHRIST  CONDEMNING  SIN        135 

Spirit  of  holiness';  and  we  must  connect  that  say- 
ing with  our  text,  and  so  think  of  Christ's  bestowal 
of  His  perfect  gift  to  humanity  of  the  Spirit  which 
sanctifies  as  being  part  of  His  condemnation  of 
sin  in  the  flesh.  Into  the  very  region  where  the 
tyrant  rules,  the  Son  of  God  communicates  a  new 
nature  which  constitutes  a  real  new  power.  The 
Spirit  operates  on  all  our  faculties,  and  redeems  them 
from  the  bondage  of  corruption.  All  the  springs 
in  the  land  are  poisoned ;  but  a  new  one,  limpid  and 
pure,  is  opened.  By  the  entrance  of  the  Spirit  of 
holiness  into  a  human  spirit,  the  usurper  is  driven  from 
the  central  fortress:  and  though  he  may  linger  in 
the  outworks  and  keep  up  a  guerilla  warfare,  that  is 
all  that  he  can  do.  We  never  truly  apprehend  Christ's 
gift  to  man  until  we  recognise  that  He  not  merely 
'died  for  our  sins,'  but  lives  to  impart  the  principle 
of  holiness  in  the  gift  of  His  Spirit.  The  dominion  of 
that  imparted  Spirit  is  gradual  and  progressive.  The 
Canaanite  may  still  be  in  the  land,  but  a  growing 
power,  working  in  and  through  us,  is  warring  against 
all  in  us  that  still  owns  allegiance  to  that  alien  power, 
and  there  can  be  no  end  to  the  victorious  struggle 
until  the  whole  body,  soul,  and  spirit,  be  wholly  under 
the  influence  of  the  Spirit  that  dwelleth  in  us,  and 
nothing  shall  hurt  or  destroy  in  what  shall  then  be  all 
God's  holy  mountain. 

Such  is,  in  the  most  general  terms,  the  statement  of 
what  Christ  does  '  for  us ' ;  and  the  question  comes  to 
be  the  all-important  one  for  each.  Do  I  let  Him  do 
it  for  me  ?  Remember  the  alternative.  There  must 
either  be  condemnation  for  us,  or  for  the  sin  that 
dwelleth  in  us.  There  is  no  condemnation  for  them 
who  are  in  Christ  Jesus,  because  there  is  condemna- 


136        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.viii. 

tion  for  the  sin  that  dwells  in  them.  It  must  be  slain, 
or  it  will  slay  us.  It  must  be  cast  out,  or  it  will  cast 
us  out  from  God.  It  must  be  separated  from  us,  or 
it  will  separate  us  from  Him.  We  need  not  be  con- 
demned, but  if  it  be  not  condemned,  then  we  shall  be. 


THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  SPIRIT 

'  The  Spirit  itself  beareth  witness  with  our  spirit,  that  we  are  the  children  of 
God.'— Romans  viii.  16. 

The  sin  of  the  world  is  a  false  confidence,  a  careless, 
complacent  taking  for  granted  that  a  man  is  a  Chris- 
tian when  he  is  not.  The  fault,  and  sorrow,  and  weak- 
ness of  the  Church  is  a  false  diffidence,  an  anxious  fear 
whether  a  man  be  a  Christian  when  he  is.  There  are 
none  so  far  away  from  false  confidence  as  those  who 
tremble  lest  they  be  cherishing  it.  There  are  none  so 
inextricably  caught  in  its  toils  as  those  who  are  all 
unconscious  of  its  existence  and  of  their  danger.  The 
two  things,  the  false  confidence  and  the  false  diffidence, 
are  perhaps  more  akin  to  one  another  than  they  look 
at  first  sight.  Their  opposites,  at  all  events— the  true 
confidence,  which  is  faith  in  Christ ;  and  the  true  dif- 
fidence, which  is  utter  distrust  of  myself — are  identical. 
But  there  may  sometimes  be,  and  there  often  is,  the 
combination  of  a  real  confidence  and  a  false  diffidence, 
the  presence  of  faith,  and  the  doubt  whether  it  be 
present.  Many  Christians  go  through  life  with  this  aa 
the  prevailing  temper  of  their  minds — a  doubt  some- 
times arising  almost  to  agony,  and  sometimes  dying 
down  into  passive  patient  acceptance  of  the  condition 
as  inevitable — a  doubt  whether,  after  all,  they  be  not, 
as  they  say,  'deceiving  themselves';  and  in  the  per- 
verse ingenuity  with  which  that  state  of  mind  is  con- 


V.  16]  THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  SPIRIT     137 

etantly  marked,  they  manage  to  distil  for  themselves  a 
bitter  vinegar  of  self-accusation  out  of  grand  words  in 
the  Bible,  that  were  meant  to  afford  them  but  the  wine 
of  gladness  and  of  consolation. 

Now  this  great  text  which  I  have  ventured  to  take — 
not  with  the  idea  that  I  can  exalt  it  or  say  anything 
worthy  of  it,  but  simply  in  the  hope  of  clearing  away 
some  misapprehensions  —  is  one  that  has  often  and 
often  tortured  the  mind  of  Christians.  They  say  of 
themselves,  *  I  know  nothing  of  any  such  evidence :  I 
am  not  conscious  of  any  Spirit  bearing  witness  with 
my  spirit.'  Instead  of  looking  to  other  sources  to 
answer  the  question  whether  they  are  Christians  or 
not — and  then,  having  answered  it,  thinking  thus, '  That 
text  asserts  that  all  Christians  have  this  witness, 
therefore  certainly  I  have  it  in  some  shape  or  other,' 
they  say  to  themselves,  'I  do  not  feel  anything  that 
corresponds  with  my  idea  of  what  such  a  grand,  super- 
natural voice  as  the  witness  of  God's  Spirit  in  my 
spirit  must  needs  be  ;  and  therefore  I  doubt  whether  I 
am  a  Christian  at  all.'  I  should  be  thankful  if  the 
attempt  I  make  now  to  set  before  you  what  seems  to 
me  to  be  the  true  teaching  of  the  passage,  should  be, 
with  God's  help,  the  means  of  lifting  some  little  part  of 
the  burden  from  some  hearts  that  are  right,  and  that 
only  long  to  know  that  they  are,  in  order  to  be  at 
rest. 

'  The  Spirit  itself  beareth  witness  with  our  spirit,  that 
we  are  the  children  of  God.'  The  general  course  of 
thought  which  I  wish  to  leave  with  you  may  be  summed 
up  thus  :  Our  cry  '  Father '  is  the  witness  that  we  are 
sons.  That  cry  is  not  simply  ours,  but  it  is  the  voice  of 
God's  Spirit.  The  divine  Witness  in  our  spirits  is  sub- 
ject to  the  ordinary  influences  which  affect  our  spirits. 


138        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.viii. 

Let  us  take  these  three  thoughts,  and  dwell  on  them 
for  a  little  while. 

I.  Our  cry  '  Father '  is  the  witness  that  we  are  sons. 

Mark  the  terms  of  the  passage:  'The  Spirit  itself 
beareth  witness  with  our  spirit — .'  It  is  not  so  much  a 
revelation  made  to  my  spirit,  considered  as  the  re- 
cipient of  the  testimony,  as  a  revelation  made  in  or 
with  my  spirit  considered  as  co-operating  in  the  testi- 
mony. It  is  not  that  my  spirit  says  one  thing,  bears 
witness  that  I  am  a  child  of  God ;  and  that  the  Spirit 
of  God  comes  in  by  a  distinguishable  process,  with  a 
separate  evidence,  to  say  Amen  to  my  persuasion ;  but 
it  is  that  there  is  one  testimony  which  has  a  conjoint 
origin — the  origin  from  the  Spirit  of  God  as  true 
source,  and  the  origin  from  my  own  soul  as  recipient 
and  co-operant  in  that  testimony.  From  the  teaching 
of  this  passage,  or  from  any  of  the  language  which 
Scripture  uses  with  regard  to  the  inner  witness,  it  is 
not  to  be  inferred  that  there  will  rise  up  in  a  Chris- 
tian's heart,  from  some  origin  consciously  beyond  the 
sphere  of  his  own  nature,  a  voice  with  which  he  has 
nothing  to  do ;  which  at  once,  by  its  own  character,  by 
something  peculiar  and  distinguishable  about  it,  by 
something  strange  in  its  nature,  or  out  of  the  ordinary 
course  of  human  thinking,  shall  certify  itself  to  be  not 
his  voice  at  all,  but  Gods  voice.  That  is  not  the  direc- 
tion in  which  you  are  to  look  for  the  witness  of  God's 
Spirit.  It  is  evidence  borne,  indeed,  by  the  Spirit  of 
God;  but  it  is  evidence  borne  not  only  to  our  spirit, 
but  through  it,  with  it.  The  testimony  is  one,  the 
testimony  of  a  man's  own  emotion,  and  own  convic- 
tion, and  own  desire,  the  cry,  Abba,  Father!  So  far, 
then,  as  the  form  of  the  evidence  goes,  you  are  not  to 
look  for  it  in  anything  ecstatic,  arbitrary,  parted  off 


V.16]  THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  SPIRIT     139 

from  your  own  experience  by  a  broad  line  of  demarca- 
tion ;  but  you  are  to  look  into  the  experience  which  at 
first  sight  you  would  claim  most  exclusively  for  your 
own,  and  to  try  and  find  out  whether  there  there  be  not 
working  with  your  soul,  working  through  it,  working 
beneath  it,  distinct  from  it  but  not  distinguishable 
from  it  by  anything  but  its  consequences  and  its  fruit- 
fulness — a  deeper  voice  than  yours — a  *  still  small  voice,' 
— no  whirlwind,  nor  fire,  nor  earthquake — but  the 
voice  of  God  speaking  in  secret,  taking  the  voice  and 
tones  of  your  own  heart  and  your  own  consciousness, 
and  saying  to  you,  'Thou  art  my  child,  inasmuch  as, 
operated  by  My  grace,  and  Mine  inspiration  alone, 
there  rises,  tremblingly  but  truly,  in  thine  own  soul 
the  cry,  Abba,  Father.' 

So  much,  then,  for  the  form  of  this  evidence — my  own 
conviction.  Then  with  regard  to  the  substance  of  it : 
conviction  of  what?  The  text  itself  does  not  tell  us 
what  is  the  evidence  which  the  Spirit  bears,  and  by 
reason  of  which  we  have  a  right  to  conclude  that  we 
are  the  children  of  God.  The  previous  verse  tells  us.  I 
have  partially  anticipated  what  I  have  to  say  on  that 
point,  but  it  will  bear  a  little  further  expansion.  '  Ye 
have  not  received  the  spirit  of  bondage  again  to  fear ; 
but  ye  have  received  the  Spirit  of  adoption,  whereby 
we  cry  Abba,  Father.'  '  The  Spirit  itself,'  by  this  means 
of  our  cry,  Abba,  Father,  'beareth  witness  with  our 
spirit,  that  we  are  the  children  of  God.'  The  substance, 
then,  of  the  conviction  which  is  lodged  in  the  human 
spirit  by  the  testimony  of  the  Spirit  of  God  is  not 
primarily  directed  to  our  relation  or  feelings  to  God, 
but  to  a  far  grander  thing  than  that — to  God's  feelings 
and  relation  to  us.  Now  I  want  you  to  think  for  one 
moment,  before  I  pass  on,  how  entirely  different  the 


140        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.vih. 

whole  aspect  of  this  witness  of  the  Spirit  of  which 
Christian  men  speak  so  much,  and  sometimes  with  so 
little  understanding,  becomes  according  as  you  regard 
it  mistakenly  as  being  the  direct  testimony  to  you  that 
you  are  a  child  of  God,  or  rightly  as  being  the  direct 
testimony  to  you  that  God  is  your  Father.  The  two 
things  seem  to  be  the  same,  but  they  are  not.  In  the 
one  case,  the  false  case,  the  mistaken  interpretation, 
we  are  left  to  this,  that  a  man  has  no  deeper  certainty 
of  his  condition,  no  better  foundation  for  his  hope, 
than  what  is  to  be  drawn  from  the  presence  or  absence 
of  certain  emotions  within  his  own  heart.  In  the  other 
case,  we  are  admitted  into  this  'wide  place,'  that  all 
which  is  our  own  is  second  and  not  first,  and  that  the 
true  basis  of  all  our  confidence  lies  not  in  the  thought 
of  what  we  are  and  feel  to  God,  but  in  the  thought  of 
what  God  is  and  feels  to  us.  And  instead,  therefore,  of 
being  left  to  labour  for  ourselves,  painfully  to  search 
amongst  the  dust  and  rubbish  of  our  own  hearts,  we 
are  taught  to  sweep  away  all  that  crumbled,  rotten 
surface,  and  to  go  down  to  the  living  rock  that  lies 
beneath  it ;  we  are  taught  to  say,  in  the  words  of  the 
book  of  Isaiah,  '  Doubtless  Thou  art  our  Father — we 
are  all  an  unclean  thing ;  our  iniquities,  like  the  wind, 
have  carried  us  away ' ;  there  is  nothing  stable  in  us ; 
our  own  resolutions,  they  are  swept  away  like  the 
chaff  of  the  summer  threshing-floor,  by  the  first  gust 
of  temptation;  but  what  of  that? — 'in  those  is  con- 
tinuance, and  we  shall  be  saved ! '  Ah,  brethren !  expand 
this  thought  of  the  conviction  that  God  is  my  Father, 
as  being  the  basis  of  all  my  confidence  that  I  am  His 
child,  into  its  widest  and  grandest  form,  and  it  leads 
us  up  to  the  blessed  old  conviction,  I  am  nothing,  my 
holiness  is  nothing,  my  resolutions  are  nothing,  my 


V.16]   THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  SPIRIT     141 

faith  is  nothing,  my  energies  are  nothing;  I  stand 
stripped,  and  barren,  and  naked  of  everything,  and  I 
fling  myself  out  of  myself  into  the  merciful  arms  of  my 
Father  in  heaven !  There  is  all  the  difference  in  the 
world  between  searching  for  evidence  of  my  sonship, 
and  seeking  to  get  the  conviction  of  God's  Fatherhood. 
The  one  is  an  endless,  profitless,  self -tormenting  task ; 
the  other  is  the  light  and  liberty,  the  glorious  liberty, 
of  the  children  of  God. 

And  so  the  substance  of  the  Spirit's  evidence  is  the 
direct  conviction  based  on  the  revelation  of  God's  in- 
finite love  and  fatherhood  in  Christ  the  Son,  that  God 
is  my  Father ;  from  which  direct  conviction  I  come  to 
the  conclusion,  the  inference,  the  second  thought,  Then 
I  may  trust  that  I  am  His  son.  But  why  ?  Because  of 
anything  in  me  ?  No :  because  of  Him.  The  very 
emblem  of  fatherhood  and  sonship  might  teach  us  that 
that  depends  upon  the  Father's  will  and  the  Father's 
heart.  The  Spirit's  testimony  has  for  form  my  own 
conviction :  and  for  substance  my  humble  cry, '  Oh  Thou, 
my  Father  in  heaven!'  Brethren,  is  not  that  a  far 
truer  and  nobler  kind  of  thing  to  preach  than  saying. 
Look  into  your  own  heart  for  strange,  extraordinary, 
distinguishable  signs  which  shall  mark  you  out  as 
God's  child — and  which  are  proved  to  be  His  Spirit's, 
because  they  are  separated  from  the  ordinary  human 
consciousness  ?  Is  it  not  far  more  blessed  for  us,  and 
more  honouring  to  Him  who  works  the  sign,  when  we 
say,  that  it  is  to  be  found  in  no  out-of-rule,  miraculous 
evidence,  but  in  the  natural  (which  is  in  reality  super- 
natural) working  of  His  Spirit  in  the  heart  which  is 
its  recipient,  breeding  there  the  conviction  that  God  is 
my  Father  ?  And  oh,  if  I  am  speaking  to  any  to  whom 
that  text,  with  all  its  light  and  glory,  has  seemed  to 


142        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.  viii. 

lift  them  up  into  an  atmosphere  too  rare  and  a  height 
too  lofty  for  their  heavy  wings  and  unused  feet,  if  I  am 
speaking  to  any  Christian  man  to  whom  this  word  has 
heen  like  the  cherubim  and  flaming  sword,  bright  and 
beautiful,  but  threatening  and  repellent  when  it  speaks 
of  a  Spirit  that  bears  witness  with  our  spirit — I  ask 
you  simply  to  take  the  passage  for  yourself,  and  care- 
fully and  patiently  to  examine  it,  and  see  if  it  be  not 
true  what  I  have  been  saying,  that  your  trembling  con- 
viction— sister  and  akin  as  it  is  to  your  deepest  dis- 
trust and  sharpest  sense  of  sin  and  unworthiness — 
that  your  trembling  conviction  of  a  love  mightier  than 
your  own,  everlasting  and  all-faithful,  is  indeed  the 
selectest  sign  that  God  can  give  you  that  you  are  His 
child.  Oh,  brethren  and  sisters!  be  confident;  for  it 
is  not  false  confidence :  be  confident  if  up  from  the 
depths  of  that  dark  well  of  your  own  sinful  heart 
there  rises  sometimes,  through  all  the  bitter  waters, 
unpolluted  and  separate,  a  sweet  conviction,  forcing 
itself  upward,  that  God  hath  love  in  His  heart,  and 
that  God  is  my  Father.  Be  confident ;  *  the  Spirit  itself 
beareth  witness  with  your  spirit.' 

II.  And  now,  secondly,  That  cry  is  not  simply  ours, 
but  it  is  the  voice  of  God's  Spirit. 

Our  own  convictions  are  ours  because  they  are 
God's.  Our  own  souls  possess  these  emotions  of 
love  and  tender  desire  going  out  to  God — our  own 
spirits  possess  them ;  but  our  own  spirits  did  not 
originate  them.  They  are  ours  by  property ;  they 
are  His  by  source.  The  spirit  of  a  Christian  man 
has  no  good  thought  in  it,  no  true  thought,  no  per- 
ception of  the  grace  of  God's  Gospel,  no  holy  desire, 
no  pure  resolution,  which  is  not  stamped  with  the  sign 
pf  a  higher  origin,  and  is  not  the  witness  of  God's 


V.16]   THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  SPIRIT     143 

Spirit  in  his  spirit.  The  passage  before  us  tells  us  that 
the  sense  of  Fatherhood  which  is  in  the  Christian's 
heart,  and  becomes  his  cry,  conies  from  God's  Spirit. 
This  passage,  and  that  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians 
which  is  almost  parallel,  put  this  truth  very  forcibly, 
when  taken  in  connection.  '  Ye  have  received,'  says  the 
text  before  us,  *  the  Spirit  of  adoption,  whereby  we  cry, 
Abba,  Father.'  The  variation  in  the  Epistle  to  the 
Galatians  is  this :  '  Because  ye  are  sons,  God  hath  sent 
forth  the  Spirit  of  His  Son  into  your  hearts,  crying 
(the  Spirit  crying),  Abba,  Father.'  So  in  the  one  text, 
the  cry  is  regarded  as  the  voice  of  the  believing  heart ; 
and  in  the  other  the  same  cry  is  regarded  as  the  voice 
of  God's  Spirit.  And  these  two  things  are  both  true ; 
the  one  would  want  its  foundation  if  it  were  not  for 
the  other;  the  cry  of  the  Spirit  is  nothing  for  me 
unless  it  be  appropriated  by  me.  I  do  not  need  to 
plunge  here  into  metaphysical  speculation  of  any 
sort,  but  simply  to  dwell  upon  the  plain  practical 
teaching  of  the  Bible — a  teaching  verified,  I  believe, 
by  every  Christian's  experience,  if  he  will  search  into 
it — that  everything  in  him  which  makes  the  Christian 
life,  is  not  his,  but  is  God's  by  origin,  and  his  only  by 
gift  and  inspiration.  And  the  whole  doctrine  of  my 
text  is  built  on  this  one  thought — without  the  Spirit  of 
God  in  your  heart,  you  never  can  recognise  God  as 
your  Father.  That  in  us  which  runs,  with  love,  and 
childlike  faith,  and  reverence,  to  the  place  '  where  His 
honour  dwelleth,'  that  in  us  which  says  'Father,'  is 
kindred  with  God,  and  is  not  the  simple,  unhelped, 
unsanctified  human  nature.  There  is  no  ascent  of 
human  desires  above  their  source.  And  wherever  in  a 
heart  there  springs  up  heavenward  a  thought,  a  wish, 
a  prayer,  a  trembling  confidence,  it  is  because  that 


144        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.  vni. 

came  down  first  from  heaven,  and  rises  to  seek  its 
level  again.  All  that  is  divine  in  man  comes  from  God. 
All  that  tends  towards  God  in  man  is  God's  voice  in 
the  human  heart ;  and  were  it  not  for  the  possession 
and  operation,  the  sanctifying  and  quickening,  of  a 
living  divine  Spirit  granted  to  us,  our  souls  would  for 
ever  cleave  to  the  dust  and  dwell  upon  earth,  nor  ever 
rise  to  God  and  live  in  the  light  of  His  presence.  Every 
Christian,  then,  may  be  sure  of  this,  that  howsoever 
feeble  may  be  the  thought  and  conviction  in  his  heart 
of  God's  Fatherhood,  he  did  not  work  it,  he  received  it 
only,  cherished  it,  thought  of  it,  watched  over  it,  was 
careful  not  to  quench  it;  but  in  origin  it  was  God's, 
and  it  is  now  and  ever  the  voice  of  the  Divine  Spirit  in 
the  child's  heart. 

But,  my  friends,  if  this  principle  be  true,  it  does  not 
apply  only  to  this  one  single  attitude  of  the  believing 
soul  when  it  cries,  Abba,  Father ;  it  must  be  widened 
out  to  comprehend  the  whole  of  a  Christian's  life,  out- 
ward and  inward,  which  is  not  sinful  and  darkened 
with  actual  transgression.  To  all  the  rest  of  his  being, 
to  everything  in  heart  and  life  which  is  right  and 
pure,  the  same  truth  applies.  *  The  Spirit  itself  beareth 
witness  with  our  spirit'  in  every  perception  of  God's 
word  which  is  granted,  in  every  revelation  of  His 
counsel  which  dawns  upon  our  darkness,  in  every 
aspiration  after  Him  which  lifts  us  above  the  smoke 
and  dust  of  this  dim  spot,  in  every  holy  resolution,  in 
every  thrill  and  throb  of  love  and  desire.  Each  of 
these  is  mine — inasmuch  as  in  my  heart  it  is  experienced 
and  transacted ;  it  is  mine,  inasmuch  as  I  am  not  a 
mere  dead  piece  of  matter,  the  passive  recipient  of 
a  magical  and  supernatural  grace ;  but  it  is  God's ;  and 
therefore,  and  therefore  only,  has  it  come  to  be  mine  ! 


V.16]  THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  SPIRIT     145 

And  if  it  be  objected,  that  this  opens  a  wide  door 
to  all  manner  of  delusion,  and  that  there  is  no  more 
dangerous  thing  than  for  a  man  to  confound  his  own 
thoughts  with  the  operations  of  God's  Spirit,  let  me 
just  give  you  (following  the  context  before  us)  the  one 
guarantee  and  test  which  the  Apostle  lays  down.  He 
says,  'There  is  a  witness  from  God  in  your  spirits.' 
You  may  say,  That  witness,  if  it  come  in  the  form  of 
these  convictions  in  my  own  heart,  I  may  mistake  and 
falsely  read.  "Well,  then,  here  is  an  outward  guarantee. 
'  As  many  as  are  led  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  they  are  the 
sons  of  God ' ;  and  so,  on  the  regions  both  of  heart  and 
of  life  the  consecrating  thought, — God's  work,  and 
God's  Spirit's  work — is  stamped.  The  heart  with  its 
love,  the  head  with  its  understanding,  the  conscience 
with  its  quick  response  to  the  law  of  duty,  the  will 
with  its  resolutions, — these  are  all,  as  sanctified  by 
Him,  the  witness  of  His  Spirit ;  and  the  life  with  its 
strenuous  obedience,  with  its  struggles  against  sin  and 
temptation,  with  its  patient  persistence  in  the  quiet 
path  of  ordinary  duty,  as  well  as  with  the  times  when 
it  rises  into  heroic  stature  of  resignation  or  allegiance, 
the  martyrdom  of  death  and  the  martyrdom  of  life, 
this  too  is  all  (in  so  far  as  it  is  pure  and  right)  the 
work  of  that  same  Spirit.  The  test  of  the  inward  con- 
viction is  the  outward  life;  and  they  that  have  the 
witness  of  the  Spirit  within  them  have  the  light  of 
their  life  lit  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  whereby  they  may 
read  the  handwriting  on  the  heart,  and  be  sure  that  it 
is  God's  and  not  their  own. 

III.  And  now,  lastly,  this  divine  Witness  in  our  spirits 
is  subject  to  the  ordinary  influences  which  affect  our 
spirits. 

The  notion  often  prevails  that  if  there  be  in   the 

K 


146        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.  vm. 

heart  this  divine  witness  of  God's  Spirit,  it  must 
needs  be  perfect,  clearly  indicating  its  origin  by  an 
exemption  from  all  that  besets  ordinary  human  feel- 
ings, that  it  must  be  a  strong,  uniform,  never  flickering, 
never  darkening,  and  perpetual  light,  a  kind  of  vestal 
fire  burning  alvp^ays  on  the  altar  of  the  heart!  The 
passage  before  us,  and  all  others  that  speak  about  the 
matter,  give  us  the  directly  opposite  notion.  The 
Divine  Spirit,  when  it  enters  into  the  narrow  room  of 
the  human  spirit,  condescends  to  submit  itself,  not 
wholly,  but  to  such  an  extent  as  practically  for  our 
present  purpose  is  wholly  to  submit  itself  to  the 
ordinary  laws  and  conditions  and  contingencies  which 
befall  and  regulate  our  own  human  nature.  Christ 
came  into  the  world  divine :  He  was  '  found  in  fashion 
as  a  man,'  in  form  a  servant ;  the  humanity  that  He 
wore  limited  (if  you  like),  regulated,  modified,  the 
manifestation  of  the  divinity  that  dwelt  in  it.  And 
not  otherwise  is  the  operation  of  God's  Holy  Spirit 
when  it  comes  to  dwell  in  a  human  heart.  There  too, 
working  through  man,  it  'is  found  in  fashion  as  a 
mian';  and  though  the  origin  of  the  conviction  be  of 
God,  and  though  the  voice  in  my  heart  be  not  only 
my  voice,  but  God's  voice  there,  it  will  obey  those  same 
laws  which  make  human  thoughts  and  emotions  vary, 
and  fluctuate,  flicker  and  flame  up  again,  burn  bright 
and  burn  low,  according  to  a  thousand  circumstances. 
The  witness  of  the  Spirit,  if  it  were  yonder  in  heaven, 
would  shino  like  a  perpetual  star ;  the  witness  of  the 
Spirit,  here  in  the  heart  on  earth,  burns  like  a  flicker- 
ing flame,  never  to  be  extinguished,  but  still  not  always 
bright,  wanting  to  be  trimmed,  and  needing  to  be 
guarded  from  rude  blasts.  Else,  brother,  what  does 
an  Apostle  mean  when  he  says  to  you  and  me,  *  Quench 


V.16]  THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  SPIRIT     147 

not  the  Spirit '  ?  what  does  he  mean  when  he  says  to 
us,  'Grieve  not  the  Spirit'?  What  does  the  whole 
teaching  which  enjoins  on  us,  'Let  your  loins  be  girded 
about,  and  your  lights  burning,'  and  'What  I  say  to 
you,  I  say  to  all,  Watch ! '  mean,  unless  it  means  this, 
that  God-given  as  (God  be  thanked !)  that  conviction  of 
Fatherhood  is,  it  is  not  given  in  such  a  way  as  that, 
irrespective  of  our  carefulness,  irrespective  of  our 
watching,  it  shall  burn  on — the  same  and  unchange- 
able ?  The  Spirit's  witness  comes  from  God,  therefore 
it  is  veracious,  divine,  omnipotent;  but  the  Spirit's 
witness  from  God  is  in  man,  therefore  it  may  be 
wrongly  read,  it  may  be  checked,  it  may  for  a  time  be 
kept  down,  and  prevented  from  showing  itself  to  be 
what  it  is. 

And  the  practical  conclusion  that  comes  from  all 
this,  is  just  the  simple  advice  to  you  all :  Do  not  wonder, 
in  the  first  place,  if  that  evidence  of  which  we  speak, 
vary  and  change  in  its  clearness  and  force  in  your  own 
hearts.  '  The  flesh  lusteth  against  the  spirit,  and  the 
spirit  against  the  flesh.'  Do  not  think  that  it  cannot  be 
genuine,  because  it  is  changeful.  There  is  a  sun  in  the 
heavens,  but  there  are  heavenly  lights  too  that  wax 
and  wane;  they  are  lights,  they  are  in  the  heavens 
though  they  change.  You  have  no  reason.  Christian 
man,  to  be  discouraged,  cast  down,  still  less  despon- 
dent, because  you  find  that  the  witness  of  the  Spirit 
changes  and  varies  in  your  heart.  Do  not  despond 
because  it  does ;  watch  it,  and  guard  it,  lest  it  do ; 
live  in  the  contemplation  of  the  Person  and  the  fact 
that  calls  it  forth,  that  it  may  not.  You  will  never 
•brighten  your  evidences'  by  polishing  at  them.  To 
polish  the  mirror  ever  so  assiduously  does  not  secure 
the  image  of  the  sun  on  its  surface.    The  only  way  to 


148        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.  viii. 

do  that  is  to  carry  the  poor  bit  of  glass  out  into  the 
sunshine.  It  will  shine  then,  never  fear.  It  is  weary 
work  to  labour  at  self -improvement  with  the  hope  of 
drawing  from  our  own  characters  evidences  that  we 
are  the  sons  of  God.  To  have  the  heart  filled  with  the 
light  of  Christ's  love  to  us  is  the  only  way  to  have  the 
whole  being  full  of  light.  If  you  would  have  clear  and 
irrefragable,  for  a  perpetual  joy,  a  glory  and  a  defence, 
the  unwavering  confidence,  'I  am  Thy  child,'  go  to 
God's  throne,  and  lie  down  at  the  foot  of  it,  and  let  the 
first  thought  be,  •  My  Father  in  heaven,'  and  that  will 
brighten,  that  will  stablish,  that  will  make  omnipotent 
in  your  life  the  witness  of  the  Spirit  that  you  are  the 
child  of  God. 


SONS  AND  HEIRS 

'  If  children,  then  heirs;  heirs  of  God,  and  joint-heirs  with  Christ.' 

Romans  viii.  17. 

God  Himself  is  His  greatest  gift.  The  loftiest  blessing 
which  we  can  receive  is  that  we  should  be  heirs, 
possessors  of  God.  There  is  a  sublime  and  wonderful 
mutual  possession  of  which  Scripture  speaks  much 
wherein  the  Lord  is  the  inheritance  of  Israel,  and  Israel 
is  the  inheritance  of  the  Lord.  '  The  Lord  hath  taken 
you  to  be  to  Him  a  people  of  inheritance,'  says  Moses ; 
*Ye  are  a  people  for  a  possession,'  says  Peter.  And, 
on  the  other  hand,  '  The  Lord  is  the  portion  of  my 
inheritance,'  says  David  ;  '  Ye  are  heirs  of  God,'  echoes 
Paul.  On  earth  and  in  heaven  the  heritage  of  the 
children  of  the  Lord  is  God  Himself,  inasmuch  as  He 
is  with  them  for  their  delight,  in  them  to  make  them 
'  partakers  of  the  divine  nature,'  and  for  them  in  all  His 
attributes  and  actions. 


V.  17]  SONS  AND  HEIRS  149 

This  being  clearly  understood  at  the  outset,  we  shall 
be  prepared  to  follow  the  Apostle's  course  of  thought 
while  he  points  out  the  conditions  upon  which  the 
possession  of  that  inheritance  depends.  It  is  children 
of  God  who  are  heirs  of  God.  It  is  by  union  with 
Christ  Jesus,  the  Son,  to  whom  the  inheritance  belongs, 
that  they  who  believe  on  His  name  receive  power  to 
become  the  sons  of  God,  and  with  that  power  the 
possession  of  the  inheritance.  Thus,  then,  in  this 
condensed  utterance  of  the  text  there  appear  a  series 
of  thoughts  which  may  perhaps  be  more  fully  unfolded 
in  some  such  manner  as  the  following,  that  there  is  no 
inheritance  without  sonship,  that  there  is  no  sonship 
without  a  spiritual  birth,  that  there  is  no  spiritual  birth 
without  Christ,  and  that  there  is  no  Christ  for  us 
without  faith. 

I.  First,  then,  the  text  tells  us,  no  inheritance  without 
sonship. 

In  general  terms,  spiritual  blessings  can  only  be 
given  to  those  who  are  in  a  certain  spiritual  condi- 
tion. Always  and  necessarily  the  capacity  or  organ  of 
reception  precedes  and  determines  the  bestowment  of 
blessings.  The  light  falls  everywhere,  but  only  the  eye 
drinks  it  in.  The  lower  orders  of  creatures  are  shut 
out  from  all  participation  in  the  gifts  which  belong  to 
the  higher  forms  of  life,  simply  because  they  are  so 
made  and  organised  as  that  these  cannot  find  entrance 
into  their  nature.  They  are,  as  it  were,  walled  up  all 
round ;  and  the  only  door  they  have  to  communicate 
with  the  outer  world  is  the  door  of  sense.  Man  has 
higher  gifts  simply  because  he  has  higher  capacities. 
All  creatures  are  plunged  in  the  same  boundless  ocean 
of  divine  beneficence  and  bestowment,  and  into  each 
there  flows  just  that,  and   no  more,  which  each,  by 


150        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.viii. 

the  make  and  constitution  that  God  has  given  it,  is 
capable  of  receiving.  In  the  man  there  are  more 
windows  and  doors  opened  out  than  in  the  animal. 
He  is  capable  of  receiving  intellectual  impulses,  spiri- 
tual emotions ;  he  can  think,  and  feel,  and  desire,  and 
will,  and  resolve :  and  so  he  stands  on  a  higher  level 
than  the  beast  below  him. 

Not  otherwise  is  it  in  regard  to  God's  kingdom,  'which 
is  righteousness,  and  peace,  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost.' 
The  gift  and  blessing  of  salvation  is  primarily  a  spiritual 
gift,  and  only  involves  outward  consequences  second- 
arily and  subordinately.  It  mainly  consists  in  the 
heart  being  at  peace  with  God,  in  the  whole  soul  being 
filled  with  divine  affections,  in  the  weight  and  bondage 
of  transgression  being  taken  away,  and  substituted  by 
the  impulse  and  the  life  of  the  new  love.  Therefore, 
neither  God  can  give,  nor  man  can  receive,  that  gift 
upon  any  other  terms,  than  just  this,  that  the  heart 
and  nature  be  fitted  and  adapted  for  it.  Spiritual 
blessings  require  a  spiritual  capacity  for  the  reception 
of  them;  or,  as  my  text  says,  you  cannot  have  the 
inheritance  unless  you  are  sons.  If  salvation  consisted 
simply  in  a  change  of  place ;  if  it  were  merely  that  by 
some  expedient  or  arrangement,  an  outward  penalty, 
which  was  to  fall  or  not  to  fall  at  the  will  of  an 
arbitrary  judge,  were  prevented  from  coming  down, 
why  then,  it  would  be  open  to  Him  who  held  the  power 
of  letting  the  sword  fall,  to  decide  on  what  terms  He 
might  choose  to  suspend  its  infliction.  But  inasmuch 
as  God's  deliverance  is  not  a  deliverance  from  a  mere 
arbitrary  and  outward  punishment :  inasmuch  as  God's 
salvation,  though  it  be  deliverance  from  the  penalty  as 
well  as  from  the  guilt  of  sin,  is  by  no  means  chiefly  a 
deliverance  from  outward  consequences,  but  mainly  a 


V.  17]  SONS  AiS^D  HEIRS  151 

removal  of  the  nature  and  disposition  that  makes 
these  outward  consequences  certain, — therefore  a  man 
cannot  be  saved,  God's  love  cannot  save  him,  God's 
justice  will  not  save  him,  God's  power  stands  back 
from  saving  him,  upon  any  other  condition  than  this, 
that  his  soul  shall  be  adapted  and  prepared  for  the 
reception  and  enjoyment  of  the  blessing  of  a  spiritual 
salvation. 

But  the  inheritance  which  my  text  speaks  about  is 
also  that  which  a  Christian  hopes  to  receive  and  enter 
upon  in  heaven.  The  same  principle  precisely  applies 
there.  There  is  no  inheritance  of  heaven  without 
sonship ;  because  all  the  blessings  of  that  future  life 
are  of  a  spiritual  character.  The  joy  and  the  rapture 
and  the  glory  of  that  higher  and  better  life  have,  of 
course,  connected  with  them  certain  changes  of  bodily 
form,  certain  changes  of  local  dwelling,  certain  changes 
which  could  perhaps  be  granted  equally  to  a  man,  of 
whatever  sort  he  was.  But,  friends,  it  is  not  the 
golden  harps,  not  the  pavement  of  *  glass  mingled  with 
fire,'  not  the  cessation  from  work,  not  the  still  com- 
posure, and  changeless  indwelling,  not  the  society  even, 
that  makes  the  heaven  of  heaven.  All  these  are  but 
the  embodiments  and  rendering  visible  of  the  inward 
facts,  a  soul  at  peace  with  God  in  the  depths  of  its 
being,  an  eye  which  gazes  upon  the  Father,  and  a  heart 
which  wraps  itself  in  His  arms.  Heaven  is  no  heaven 
except  in  so  far  as  it  is  the  possession  of  God.  That 
saying  of  the  Psalmist  is  not  an  exaggeration,  nor  even 
a  forgetting  of  the  other  elements  of  future  blessedness, 
but  it  is  a  simple  statement  of  the  literal  fact  of  the  case, 
'  I  have  none  in  heaven  but  Thee  ! '  God  is  the  heritage 
of  His  people.  To  dwell  in  His  love,  and  to  be  filled 
with  His  light,  and  to  walk  for  ever  in  the  glory  of  His 


152        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.viii. 

sunlit  face,  to  do  His  will,  and  to  bear  His  character 
stamped  upon  our  foreheads — that  is  the  glory  and  the 
perfectness  to  which  we  are  aspiring.  Do  not  then 
rest  in  the  symbols  that  show  us,  darkly  and  far  off, 
what  that  future  glory  is.  Do  not  forget  that  the 
picture  is  a  shadow.  Get  beneath  all  these  figurative 
expressions,  and  feel  that  whilst  it  may  be  true  that 
for  us  in  our  present  earthly  state,  there  can  be  no 
higher,  no  purer,  no  more  spiritual  nor  any  truer 
representations  of  the  blessedness  which  is  to  come, 
than  those  which  couch  it  in  the  forms  of  earthly 
experience,  and  appeal  to  sense  as  the  minister  of 
delight — yet  that  all  these  things  are  representations, 
and  not  adequate  presentations.  The  inheritance  of 
the  servants  of  the  Lord  is  the  Lord  Himself,  and  they 
dwell  in  Him,  and  there  is  their  joy. 

Well  then,  if  that  be  even  partially  true — admitting 
all  that  you  may  say  about  circumstances  which  go  to 
make  some  portion  of  the  blessedness  of  that  future 
life — if  it  be  true  that  God  is  the  true  blessing  given  by 
His  Gospel  upon  earth,  that  He  Himself  is  the  greatest 
gift  that  can  be  bestowed,  and  that  He  is  the  true 
Heaven  of  heaven — what  a  flood  of  light  does  it  cast 
upon  that  statement  of  my  text,  'If  children,  then 
heirs ' ;  no  inheritance  without  sonship !  For  who  can 
possess  God  but  they  who  love  Him?  who  can  love, 
but  they  who  know  His  love?  who  can  have  Him 
working  in  their  hearts  a  blessed  and  sanctifying 
change,  except  the  souls  that  lie  thankfully  quiet 
beneath  the  forming  touch  of  His  invisible  hand,  and 
like  flowers  drink  in  the  light  of  His  face  in  their  still 
joy  ?  How  can  God  dwell  in  any  heart  except  a  heart 
which  has  in  it  a  love  of  purity  ?  Where  can  He  make 
His  temple  except  in  the ' upright  heart  and  pure' ?  How 


V.  17]  SONS  AND  HEIRS  153 

can  there  be  fellowship  betwixt  Him  and  any  one 
except  the  man  who  is  a  son  because  he  hath  received 
of  the  divine  nature,  and  in  whom  that  divine  nature 
is  growing  up  into  a  divine  likeness?  'What  fellow- 
ship hath  Christ  with  Belial  ? '  is  not  only  applicable  as 
a  guide  for  our  practical  life,  but  points  to  the  principle 
on  which  God's  inheritance  belongs  to  God's  sons  alone. 
*  Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart,  for  they  shall  see  God ' ; 
and  those  only  who  love,  and  are  children,  to  them 
alone  does  the  Father  come  and  does  the  Father  belong. 

So  much,  then,  for  the  first  principle :  No  inheritance 
without  sonship. 

II.  Secondly,  the  text  leads  us  to  the  principle  that 
there  is  no  sonship  without  a  spiritual  birth. 

The  Apostle  John  in  that  most  wonderful  preface  to 
his  Gospel,  where  all  deepest  truths  concerning  the 
Eternal  Being  in  itself  and  in  the  solemn  march  of  His 
progressive  revelations  to  the  world  are  set  forth  in 
language  simple  like  the  words  of  a  child  and  inexhaust- 
ible like  the  voice  of  a  god,  draws  a  broad  distinction 
between  the  relation  to  the  manifestations  of  God 
which  every  human  soul  by  virtue  of  his  humanity 
sustains,  and  that  into  which  some,  by  virtue  of  their 
faith,  enter.  Every  man  is  lighted  by  the  true  light 
because  he  is  a  man.  They  who  believe  in  His  name 
receive  from  Him  the  prerogative  to  become  the  sons 
of  God.  Whatever  else  may  be  taught  in  John's  words, 
surely  they  do  teach  us  this,  that  the  sonship  of  which 
he  speaks  does  not  belong  to  man  as  man,  is  not  a 
relation  into  which  we  are  born  by  natural  birth,  that 
we  become  sons  after  we  are  men,  that  those  who 
become  sons  do  not  include  all  those  who  are  lighted 
by  the  Light,  but  consist  of  so  many  of  that  greater 
number  as  receive  Him,  and  that  such  become  sons 


154        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.  viii. 

by  a  divine  act,  the  communication  of  a  spiritual  life, 
whereby  they  are  born  of  God. 

The  same  Apostle,  in  his  Epistles,  where  the  widest 
love  is  conjoined  with  the  most  firmly  drawn  lines  of 
moral  demarcation  between  the  great  opposites — life, 
light,  love — death,  darkness,  hate — contrasts  in  the 
most  unmistakable  antithesis  the  sons  of  God  who 
are  known  for  such  because  they  do  righteousness,  and 
the  world  which  knew  not  Christ,  nor  knows  those 
who,  dimly  beholding,  partially  resemble  Him.  Nay, 
he  goes  further,  and  says  in  strange  contradiction  to 
the  popular  estimate  of  his  character,  but  in  true 
imitation  of  that  Incarnate  love  which  hated  iniquity, 
'  In  this  the  children  of  God  are  manifested  and  the 
children  of  the  devil' — echoing  thus  the  words  of  Him 
whose  pitying  tenderness  had  sometimes  to  clothe 
itself  in  sharpest  words,  even  as  His  hand  of  powerful 
love  had  once  to  grasp  the  scourge  of  small  cords.  *  If 
God  were  your  Father,  ye  would  love  Me :  ye  are  of 
your  father,  the  devil.' 

These  are  but  specimens  of  a  whole  cycle  of  Scripture 
statements  which  in  every  form  of  necessary  implica- 
tion, and  of  direct  statement,  set  forth  the  principle 
that  he  who  is  born  again  of  the  Spirit,  and  he  only,  is 
a  son  of  God. 

Nothing  in  all  this  contradicts  the  belief  that  all  men 
are  the  children  of  God,  inasmuch  as  they  are  shaped 
by  His  divine  hand  and  He  has  breathed  into  their 
nostrils  the  breath  of  life.  They  who  hold  that  sonship 
is  obtained  on  the  condition  which  these  passages 
seem  to  assert,  do  also  rejoice  to  believe  and  to  preach 
that  the  Father's  love  broods  over  every  human  heart 
as  the  dovelike  Spirit  over  the  primeval  chaos.  They 
rejoice  to  proclaim  that  Christ  has  come  that  all,  that 


y.  17]  SONS  AND  HEIRS  155 

each,  may  receive  the  adoption  of  sons.  They  do  not 
feel  that  their  message  to,  nor  their  hope  for,  the  world 
is  less  blessed,  less  wide,  because  while  they  call  on  all 
to  come  and  take  the  things  that  are  freely  given  to 
them  of  God,  they  believe  that  those  only  who  do  come 
and  take  possess  the  blessing.  Every  man  may  become 
a  son  and  heir  of  God  by  faith  in  Jesus  Christ. 

But  notwithstanding  all  the  mercies  that  belong  to 
us  all,  notwithstanding  the  divine  beneficence,  which, 
like  the  air  and  the  light,  pervades  all  nature,  and 
underlies  all  our  lives,  notwithstanding  the  universal 
adaptation  and  intention  of  Christ's  work,  notwith- 
standing the  wooing  of  His  tender  voice  and  the 
unceasing  beckoning  of  His  love,  it  still  remains  true 
that  there  are  men  in  the  world,  created  by  God,  loved 
and  cared  for  by  Him,  for  whom  Christ  died,  who 
might  be,  but  are  not,  sons  of  God. 

Fatherhood!  what  does  that  word  itself  teach  us? 
It  speaks  of  the  communication  of  a  life,  and  the 
reciprocity  of  love.  It  rests  upon  a  divine  act,  and  it 
involves  a  human  emotion.  It  involves  that  the  father 
and  the  child  shall  have  kindred  life — the  father 
bestowing  and  the  child  possessing  a  life  which  is 
derived;  and  because  derived,  kindred;  and  because 
kindred,  unfolding  itself  in  likeness  to  the  father  that 
gave  it.  And  it  requires  that  between  the  father's 
heart  and  the  child's  heart  there  shall  pass,  in  blessed 
interchange  and  quick  correspondence,  answering  love, 
flashing  backwards  and  forwards,  like  the  lightning 
that  touches  the  earth  and  rises  from  it  again.  A 
simple  appeal  to  your  own  consciousness  will  decide  if 
that  be  the  condition  of  all  men.  Are  you,  my  brother, 
conscious  of  anything  within  you  higher  than  the 
common  life  that  belongs  to  you  because  you  are  an 


156        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.  viii. 

immortal  soul?  Can  you  say,  *  From  God's  hand  I  have 
received  the  granting  and  implantation  of  a  new  and 
better  life  ? '  Is  your  claim  verified  by  this,  that  you 
are  kindred  with  God  in  holy  affections,  in  like  pur- 
poses, loving  what  He  loves,  hating  what  He  hates, 
doing  what  He  wills,  accepting  what  He  sends,  longing 
for  Himself,  and  blessed  in  His  presence?  Is  your 
sonship  proved  by  the  depth  and  sincerity,  the  sim- 
plicity and  power,  of  your  throbbing  heart  of  love  to 
your  Father  in  heaven?  Or  are  all  these  emotions 
empty  words  to  you,  things  that  are  spoken  in  pulpits, 
but  to  which  you  have  nothing  in  your  life  correspond- 
ing? Oh  then,  my  friend,  what  am  I  to  say  to  you? 
What  but  this  ?  no  sonship  except  by  that  spiritual 
birth;  and  if  not  such  sonship,  then  the  spirit  of 
bondage.  If  not  such  sonship,  why  then,  by  all  the 
tendencies  of  your  nature,  and  by  all  the  affinities  of 
your  moral  being,  if  you  are  not  holding  of  heaven, 
you  are  holding  of  hell ;  if  you  are  not  drawing  your 
life,  your  character,  your  emotions,  your  affections, 
from  the  sacred  well  that  lies  up  yonder,  you  are 
drawing  them  from  the  black  one  that  lies  down  there. 
There  are  heaven,  hell,  and  the  earth  that  lies  between, 
ever  influenced  either  from  above  or  from  below.  You 
are  sons  because  born  again,  or  slaves  and  '  enemies  by 
wicked  works.'    It  is  a  grim  alternative,  but  it  is  a  fact. 

III.  Thirdly,  no  spiritual  birth  without  Christ. 

We  have  seen  that  the  sonship  which  gives  power  of 
possessing  the  inheritance  and  which  comes  by  spiritual 
birth,  rests  upon  the  giving  of  life,  spiritual  life,  from 
God ;  and  unfolds  itself  in  certain  holy  characters,  and 
affections,  and  desires,  the  throbbing  of  the  whole  soul 
in  full  accord  and  harmony  with  the  divine  character 
and  will.    Well  then,  it  looks  very  clear  that  a  man 


T.17]  SONS  AND  HEIRS  157 

cannot  make  that  new  life  for  himself,  cannot  do  it 
because  of  the  habit  of  sin,  and  cannot  do  it  because  of 
the  guilt  and  punishment  of  sin.  If  for  sonship  there 
must  be  a  birth  again,  why,  surely,  the  very  symbol 
might  convince  you  that  such  a  process  does  not  lie 
within  our  own  power.  There  must  come  down  a 
divine  leaven  into  the  mass  of  human  nature,  before 
this  new  being  can  be  evolved  in  any  one.  There  must 
be  a  gift  of  God.  A  divine  energy  must  be  the  source 
and  fountain  of  all  holy  and  of  all  Godlike  life.  Christ 
comes,  comes  to  make  you  and  me  live  again  as  we 
never  lived  before;  live  possessors  of  God's  love;  live 
tenanted  and  ruled  by  a  divine  Spirit ;  live  with  affec- 
tions in  our  hearts  which  we  never  could  kindle  there ; 
live  with  purposes  in  our  souls  which  we  never  could 
put  there. 

And  I  want  to  urge  this  thought,  that  the  centre 
point  of  the  Gospel  is  this  regeneration ;  because  if 
we  understand,  as  we  are  too  much  disposed  to  do, 
that  the  Gospel  simply  comes  to  make  men  live  better, 
to  work  out  a  moral  reformation, — why,  there  is  no 
need  for  a  Gospel  at  all.  If  the  change  were  a  simple 
change  of  habit  and  action  on  the  part  of  men,  we 
could  do  without  a  Christ.  If  the  change  simply 
involved  a  bracing  ourselves  up  to  behave  better  for 
the  future,  we  could  manage  somehow  or  other  about 
as  well  as  or  better  than  we  have  managed  in  the  past. 
But  if  redemption  be  the  giving  of  life  from  God ;  and 
if  redemption  be  the  change  of  position  in  reference  to 
God's  love  and  God's  law  as  well,  neither  of  these  two 
changes  can  a  man  effect  for  himself.  You  cannot 
gather  up  the  spilt  water ;  you  cannot  any  more 
gather  up  and  re-issue  the  past  life.  The  sin  remains, 
the  guilt  remains.    The  inevitable  law  of  God  will  go 


158         EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.  viii. 

on  its  crashing  way  in  spite  of  all  penitence,  in  spite  of 
all  reformation,  in  spite  of  all  desires  after  newness  of 
life.  There  is  but  one  Being  who  can  make  a  change 
in  our  position  in  regard  to  God,  and  there  is  but  one 
Being  who  can  make  the  change  by  which  man  shall 
become  a  'new  creature.'  The  Creative  Spirit  that 
shaped  the  earth  must  shape  its  new  being  in  my  soul ; 
and  the  Father  against  whose  law  I  have  offended, 
whose  love  I  have  slighted,  from  whom  I  have  turned 
away,  must  effect  the  alteration  that  I  can  never 
effect — the  alteration  in  my  position  to  His  judgments 
and  justice,  and  to  the  whole  sweep  of  His  govern- 
ment. No  new  birth  without  Christ ;  no  escape 
from  the  old  standing-place,  of  being  '  enemies  to  God 
by  wicked  works,'  by  anything  that  we  can  do : 
no  hope  of  the  inheritance  unless  the  Lord  and  the 
Man,  the  *  second  Adam  from  heaven,'  have  come ! 
He  has  come,  and  He  has  'dwelt  with  us,'  and  He 
has  worn  this  life  of  ours,  and  He  has  walked  in  the 
midst  of  this  world,  and  He  knows  all  about  our 
human  condition,  and  He  has  effected  an  actual  change 
in  the  possible  aspect  of  the  divine  justice  and  govern- 
ment to  us ;  and  He  has  carried  in  the  golden  urn  of 
His  humanity  a  new  spirit  and  a  new  life  which  He 
has  set  down  in  the  midst  of  the  race ;  and  the  urn  was 
broken  on  the  cross  of  Calvary,  and  the  water  flowed 
out,  and  whithersoever  that  water  comes  there  is  life, 
and  whithersoever  it  comes  not  there  is  death ! 

IV.  Last  of  all,  no  Christ  without  faith. 

It  is  not  enough,  brethren,  that  we  should  go  through 
all  these  previous  steps,  if  we  then  go  utterly  astray  at 
the  end,  by  forgetting  that  there  is  only  one  way  by 
which  we  become  partakers  of  any  of  the  benefits  and 
blessings  that  Christ  has  wrought  out.   It  is  much  to  say 


V.  17]  SONS  AND  HEIRS  159 

that  for  inheritance  there  must  be  sonship.  It  is  much  to 
say  that  for  sonship  there  must  be  a  divine  regenera- 
tion. It  is  much  to  say  that  the  power  of  this  regenera- 
tion is  all  gathered  together  in  Christ  Jesus.  But  there 
are  plenty  of  people  that  would  agree  to  all  that,  who 
go  off  at  that  point,  and  content  themselves  with  this 
kind  of  thinking — that  in  some  vague  mysterious  way, 
they  know  not  how,  in  a  sort  of  half -magical  manner, 
the  benefit  of  Christ's  death  and  work  comes  to  all  in 
Christian  lands,  whether  there  be  an  act  of  faith  or 
not !  Now  I  am  not  going  to  talk  theology  at  present, 
at  this  stage  of  my  sermon ;  but  what  I  want  to  leave 
upon  all  your  hearts  is  this  profound  conviction, — Unless 
we  are  wedded  to  Jesus  Christ  by  the  simple  act  of 
trust  in  His  mercy  and  His  power,  Christ  is  nothing  to 
us.  Do  not  let  us,  my  friends,  blink  that  deciding  test 
of  the  whole  matter.  We  may  talk  about  Christ  for 
ever ;  we  may  set  forth  aspects  of  His  work,  great  and 
glorious.  He  may  be  to  us  much  that  is  very  precious ; 
but  the  one  question,  the  question  of  questions,  on 
which  everything  else  depends,  is,  Am  I  trusting  to 
Him  as  my  divine  Redeemer  ?  am  I  resting  in  Him  as 
the  Son  of  God?  Some  of  us  here  now  have  a  sort 
of  nominal  connection  with  Christ,  who  have  a  kind 
of  imaginative  connection  with  Him;  traditional, 
ceremonial,  by  habit  of  thought,  by  attendance  on 
public  worship,  and  by  I  know  not  what  other 
means.  Ceremonies  are  nothing,  notions  are  no- 
thing, beliefs  are  nothing,  formal  participation  in 
worship  is  nothing.  Christ  is  everything  to  him 
that  trusts  Him.  Christ  is  nothing  but  a  judge  and  a 
condemnation  to  him  who  trusts  Him  not.  And  here 
is  the  turning-point,  Am  I  resting  upon  that  Lord  for 
my  salvation?     If  so,  you  can  begin  upon  that  step, 


160        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.  viii. 

the  low  one  on  which  you  can  put  your  foot,  the 
humble  act  of  faith,  and  with  the  foot  there,  can  climb 
up.  If  faith,  then  new  birth ;  if  new  birth,  then 
sonship ;  if  sonship,  then  '  an  heir  of  God,  and  a  joint- 
heir  with  Christ.'  But  if  you  have  not  got  your  foot 
upon  the  lowest  round  of  the  ladder,  you  will  never 
come  within  sight  of  the  blessed  face  of  Him  who 
stands  at  the  top  of  it,  and  who  looks  down  to  you  at 
this  moment,  saying  to  you,  '  My  child,  wilt  thou  not 
cry  unto  Me  "  Abba,  Father  ?  " ' 


SUFFERING  WITH  CHRIST,  A  CONDITION  OF 
GLORY  WITH  CHRIST 

'.  .  .  Joint  heirs  with  Christ :  if  so  bo  that  we  suffer  with  Him,  that  we  may- 
be also  glorified  together.'— Romans  viii.  17. 

In  the  former  part  of  this  verse  the  Apostle  tells  us 
that  in  order  to  be  heirs  of  God,  we  must  become  sons 
through  and  joint-heirs  with  Christ.  He  seems  at  first 
sight  to  add  in  these  words  of  our  text  another  con- 
dition to  those  already  specified,  namely,  that  of 
suffering  with  Christ. 

Now,  of  course,  whatever  may  be  the  operation  of 
suffering  in  fitting  for  the  possession  of  the  Christian  in- 
heritance, either  here  or  in  another  world,  the  sonship 
and  the  sorrows  do  not  stand  on  the  same  level  in  regard 
to  that  possession.  The  one  is  the  indispensable  condi- 
tion of  all ;  the  other  is  but  the  means  for  the  operation 
of  the  condition.  The  one — being  sons, '  joint-heirs  with 
Christ,' — is  the  root  of  the  whole  matter ;  the  other — 
the  •  suffering  with  Him,' — is  but  the  various  process  by 
which  from  the  root  there  come  'the  blade,  and  the 
ear,  and  the  full  corn  in  the  ear.'  Given  the  sonship 
— if  it  is  to   be  worked  out  into  power  and  beauty. 


V.17]       SUFFERING  WITH  CHRIST         161 

there  must  be  suffering  with  Christ.  But  unless  there 
be  sonship,  there  is  no  possibility  of  inheriting  God ; 
discipline  and  suffering  will  be  of  no  use  at  all. 

The  chief  lesson  which  I  wish  to  gather  from  this 
text  now  is  that  all  God's  sons  must  suffer  with  Christ ; 
and  in  addition  to  this  principle,  we  may  complete  our 
considerations  by  adding  briefly,  that  the  inheritance 
must  be  won  by  suffering,  and  that  if  we  suffer  with 
Him,  we  certainly  shall  receive  the  inheritance. 

I.  First,  then,  sonship  with  Christ  necessarily  in- 
volves suffering  with  Him. 

I  think  that  we  entirely  misapprehend  the  force  of  this 
passage  before  us,  if  we  suppose  it  to  refer  principally 
or  merely  to  the  outward  calamities,  what  you  call  trials 
and  afflictions,  which  befall  people,  and  see  in  it  only 
the  teaching,  that  the  sorrows  of  daily  life  may  have 
in  them  a  sign  of  our  being  children  of  God,  and  some 
power  to  pr^are  us  for  the  glory  that  is  to  come. 
There  is  a  great  deal  more  in  the  thought  than  that, 
brethren.  This  is  not  merely  a  text  for  people  who 
are  in  affliction,  but  for  all  of  us.  It  does  not  merely 
contain  a  law  for  a  certain  part  of  life,  but  it  contains 
a  law  for  the  whole  of  life.  It  is  not  merely  a 
promise  that  in  all  our  afflictions  Christ  will  be 
afflicted,  but  it  is  a  solemn  injunction  that  we  seek  to 
know  '  the  fellowship  of  His  sufferings,  and  be  made 
conformable  to  the  likeness  of  His  death,'  if  we  expect 
to  be  '  found  in  the  likeness  of  His  Resurrection,'  and 
to  have  any  share  in  the  community  of  His  glory.  In 
other  words,  the  foundation  of  it  is  not  that  Christ 
shares  in  our  sufferings;  but  that  we,  as  Christians, 
£n  a  deep  and  real  sense  do  necessarily  share  and  par- 
ticipate in  Christ's.  We  'suffer  with  Him';  not  He 
suffers  with  us. 

L 


162        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.viii. 

Now,  do  not  let  us  misunderstand  each  other,  or  the 
Apostle's  teaching.  Do  not  suppose  that  I  am  for- 
getting, or  wishing  you  to  account  as  of  small  im- 
portance, the  awful  sense  in  which  Christ's  suffering 
stands  as  a  thing  by  itself  and  unapproachable,  a 
solitary  pillar  rising  up,  above  the  waste  of  time,  to 
which  all  men  everywhere  are  to  turn  with  the  one 
thought,  'I  can  do  nothing  like  that;  I  need  to  do 
nothing  like  it ;  it  has  been  done  once,  and  once  for 
all;  and  what  I  have  to  do  is,  simply  to  lie  down 
before  Him,  and  let  the  power  and  the  blessings  of  that 
death  and  those  sufferings  flow  into  my  heart.'  The 
Divine  Redeemer  makes  eternal  redemption.  The 
sufferings  of  Christ — the  sufferings  of  His  life,  and 
the  sufferings  of  His  death — both  because  of  the 
nature  which  bore  them,  and  of  the  aspect  which  they 
wore  in  regard  to  us,  are  in  their  source,  in  their 
intensity,  in  their  character,  and  consequences,  un- 
approachable, incapable  of  repetition,  and  needing  no 
repetition  whilst  the  world  shall  stand.  But  then,  do 
not  let  us  forget  that  the  very  books  and  writers  in 
the  New  Testament  that  preach  most  broadly  Christ's 
sole,  all-sufficient,  eternal  redemption  for  the  world 
by  His  sufferings  and  death,  turn  round  and  say  to  us 
too,  ' "  Be  planted  together  in  the  likeness  of  His 
death  " :  you  are  "  crucified  to  the  world  "  by  the  Cross 
of  Christ ;  you  are  to  "  fill  up  that  which  is  behind  of 
the  sufferings  of  Christ." '  He  Himself  speaks  of  our 
drinking  of  the  cup  that  He  drank  of,  and  being 
baptized  with  the  baptism  that  He  was  baptized  with, 
if  we  desire  to  sit  yonder  on  His  throne,  and  share 
with  Him  in  His  glory. 

Now  what  do  the  Apostles,  and  what  does  Christ  Him- 
self, in  that  passage  that  I  have  quoted,  mean,  by  such 


V.  17]       SUFFERING  WITH  CHRIST         168 

solemn  words  as  these  ?  Some  people  shrink  from  them, 
and  say  that  it  is  trenching  upon  the  central  doctrine 
of  the  Gospel,  when  we  speak  about  drinking  of  the  cup 
which  Christ  drank  of.  They  ask.  Can  it  be  ?  Yes,  it 
can  be,  if  you  will  think  thus : — If  a  Christian  has  the 
Spirit  and  life  of  Christ  in  him,  his  career  will  be 
moulded,  imperfectly  but  really,  by  the  same  Spirit 
that  dwelt  in  his  Lord;  and  similar  causes  will  pro- 
duce corresponding  effects.  The  life  of  Christ  which — 
divine,  pure,  incapable  of  copy  and  repetition — in  one 
aspect  has  ended  for  ever  for  men,  remains  to  be 
lived,  in  another  view  of  it,  by  every  Christian,  who 
in  like  manner  has  to  fight  with  the  world;  who 
in  like  manner  has  to  resist  temptation ;  who  in  like 
manner  has  to  stand,  by  God's  help,  pure  and  sinless, 
in  so  far  as  the  new  nature  of  him  is  concerned,  in 
the  midst  of  a  world  that  is  full  of  evil.  For  were  the 
sufferings  of  the  Lord  only  the  sufferings  that  were 
wrought  upon  Calvary?  Were  the  sufferings  of  the 
Lord  only  the  sufferings  which  came  from  the  '  con- 
tradiction of  sinners  against  Himself?  Were  the 
sufferings  of  the  Lord  only  the  sufferings  which  were 
connected  with  His  bodily  afflictions  and  pain,  precious 
and  priceless  as  they  were,  and  operative  causes  of 
our  redemption  as  they  were?  Oh  no.  Conceive  of 
that  perfect,  sinless,  really  human  life,  in  the  midst 
of  a  system  of  things  that  is  all  full  of  corruption 
and  of  sin;  coming  ever  and  anon  against  misery, 
and  wrong-doing,  and  rebellion ;  and  ask  yourselves 
whether  part  of  His  sufferings  did  not  spring  from 
the  contact  of  the  sinless  Son  of  man  with  a  sinful 
world,  and  the  apparently  vain  attempt  to  influence 
and  leaven  that  sinful  world  with  care  for  itself  and 
love  for  the  Father.     If  there  had  been  nothing  more 


164        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.  viii. 

than  that,  yet  Christ's  sufferings  as  the  Son  of  God 
in  the  midst  of  sinful  men  would  have  been  deep  and 
real.  *  O  faithless  generation,  how  long  shall  I  be 
with  you?  how  long  shall  I  suffer  you?'  was  wrung 
from  Him  by  the  painful  sense  of  want  of  sympathy 
between  His  aims  and  theirs.  *  Oh  that  I  had  wings 
like  a  dove,  for  thep  I  would  fly  away  and  be  at  rest,' 
must  often  be  the  language  of  those  who  are  like  Him 
in  spirit,  and  in  consequent  sufferings. 

And  then  again,  another  branch  of  the  'sufferings 
of  Christ '  is  to  be  found  in  that  deep  and  mysterious 
fact  on  which  I  durst  not  venture  to  speak  beyond 
what  the  actual  words  of  Scripture  put  into  my  lips — 
the  fact  that  Christ  wrought  out  His  perfect  obedience 
as  a  man,  through  temptation  and  by  suffering.  There 
was  no  sin  within  Him,  no  tendency  to  sin,  no  yielding 
to  the  evil  that  assailed.  'The  Prince  of  this  world 
cometh,  and  hath  nothing  in  Me.'  But  yet,  when  that 
dark  Power  stood  by  His  side,  and  said,  '  If  thou  be 
the  Son  of  God,  cast  Thyself  down,'  it  was  a  real 
temptation  and  not  a  sham  one.  There  was  no  wish  to 
do  it,  no  faltering  for  a  moment,  no  hesitation.  There 
was  no  rising  up  in  that  calm  will  of  even  a  moment's 
impulse  to  do  the  thing  that  was  presented ; — but  yet 
it  was  presented,  and,  when  Christ  triumphed,  and  the 
tempter  departed  for  a  season,  there  had  been  a 
temptation  and  there  had  been  a  conflict.  And  though 
obedience  be  a  joy,  and  the  doing  of  His  Father's 
will  was  His  delight,  as  it  must  needs  be  in  pure  and 
in  purified  hearts ;  yet  obedience  which  is  sustained  in 
the  face  of  temptation,  and  which  never  fails,  though 
its  path  lead  to  bodily  pains  and  the  •  contradiction 
of  sinners,'  may  well  be  called  suffering.  We  cannot 
speak  of  our  Lord's  obedience  as  the  surrender  of  His 


V.  17]       SUFFERING  WITH  CHRIST         165 

own  will  to  the  Father's,  with  the  implication  that 
these  two  wills  ever  did  or  could  move  except  in 
harmony.  There  was  no  place  in  Christ's  obedience 
for  that  casting  out  of  sinful  self  which  makes  our 
submission  a  surrender  joined  with  suffering,  but  He 
knew  temptation.  Flesh,  and  sense,  and  the  world, 
and  the  prince  of  this  world,  presented  it  to  Him ;  and 
therefore  His  obedience  too  was  suffering,  even  though 
to  do  the  will  of  His  Father  was  His  meat  and  His 
drink.  His  sustenance  and  His  refreshment. 

But  then,  let  me  remind  you  still  further,  that  not 
only  does  the  life  of  Christ,  as  sinless  in  the  midst  of 
sinful  men,  and  the  life  of  Christ,  as  sinless  whilst 
yet  there  was  temptation  presented  to  it — assume  the 
aspect  of  being  a  life  of  suffering,  and  become,  in  that 
respect,  the  model  for  us ;  but  that  also  the  Death  of 
Christ,  besides  its  aspect  as  an  atonement  and  sacri- 
fice for  sin,  the  power  by  which  transgression  is  put 
away  and  God's  love  flows  out  upon  our  souls,  has 
another  power  given  to  it  in  the  teaching  of  the  New 
Testament.  The  Death  of  Christ  is  a  type  of  the 
Christian's  life,  which  is  to  be  one  long,  protracted, 
and  daily  dying  to  sin,  to  self,  to  the  world.  The 
crucifixion  of  the  old  manhood  is  to  be  the  life's  work 
of  every  Christian,  through  the  power  of  faith  in 
that  Cross  by  which  '  the  world  is  crucified  unto  Me, 
and  I  unto  the  world.'  That  thought  comes  over  and 
over  again  in  all  forms  of  earnest  presentation  in  the 
Apostle's  teaching.  Do  not  slur  it  over  as  if  it  were 
a  mere  fanciful  metaphor.  It  carries  in  its  type  a 
most  solemn  reality.  The  truth  is,  that,  if  a  Christian, 
you  have  a  double  life.  There  is  Christ,  with  His 
power,  with  His  Spirit,  giving  you  a  nature  which  is 
pure  and  sinless,  incapable  of  transgression,  like  His 


166        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.  viii. 

own.  The  new  man,  that  which  is  born  of  God,  sinneth 
not,  cannot  sin.  But  side  by  side  with  it,  working 
through  it,  working  in  it,  leavening  it,  indistinguish- 
able from  it  to  your  consciousness,  by  anything  but 
this  that  the  one  works  righteousness  and  the  other 
works  transgression,  there  is  the  'old  man,'  'the 
flesh,'  '  the  old  Adam,'  your  own  godless,  independent, 
selfish,  proud  being.  And  the  one  is  to  slay  the  other ! 
Ah,  let  me  tell  you,  these  words — crucifying,  casting 
out  the  old  man,  plucking  out  the  right  eye,  maiming 
self  of  the  right  hand,  mortifying  the  deeds  of  the 
body — they  are  something  very  much  deeper  and  more 
awful  than  poetical  symbols  and  metaphors.  They 
teach  us  this,  that  there  is  no  growth  without  sore 
sorrow.  Conflict,  not  progress,  is  the  word  that  defines 
man's  path  from  darkness  into  light.  No  holiness  is  won 
by  any  other  means  than  this,  that  wickedness  should 
be  slain  day  by  day,  and  hour  by  hour.  In  long  linger- 
ing agony  often,  with  the  blood  of  the  heart  pouring 
out  at  every  quivering  vein,  you  are  to  cut  right 
through  the  life  and  being  of  that  sinful  self;  to  do 
what  the  Word  does,  pierce  to  the  dividing  asunder  of 
the  thoughts  and  intents  of  the  heart,  and  get  rid  by 
crucifying  and  slaying — a  long  process,  a  painful  pro- 
cess— of  your  own  sinful  self.  And  not  until  you  can 
stand  up  and  say,  '  I  live,  yet  not  I,  but  Christ  liveth 
in  me,'  have  you  accomplished  that  to  which  you  are 
consecrated  and  vowed  by  your  sonship — '  being  con- 
formed unto  the  likeness  of  His  death,'  and  '  knowing 
the  fellowship  of  His  sufferings.' 

It  is  this  process,  the  inward  strife  and  conflict  in 
getting  rid  of  evil,  which  the  Apostle  designates  here 
with  the  name  of  '  suffering  with  Christ,  that  we  may 
be  also  glorified  together.'    On  this  high  level,  and  not 


V.  17]       SUFFERING  WITH  CHRIST         167 

upon  the  lower  one  of  the  consideration  that  Christ 
will  help  us  to  bear  outward  infirmities  and  afflictions, 
do  we  find  the  true  meaning  of  all  that  Scripture 
teaching  which  says  indeed,  'Yes,  our  sufferings  are 
His';  but  lays  the  foundation  of  it  in  this,  'His 
sufferings  are  ours.'  It  begins  by  telling  us  that 
Christ  has  done  a  work  and  borne  a  sorrow  that  no 
second  '3an  ever  do.  Then  it  tells  us  that  Christ's  life 
of  obedience — which,  because  it  was  a  life  of  obedi- 
ence, was  a  life  of  suffering,  and  brought  Him  into  a 
condition  of  hostility  to  the  men  around  Him — is  to 
be  repeated  in  us.  It  sets  before  us  the  Cross  of 
Calvary,  and  the  sorrows  and  pains  that  were  felt 
there ; — and  it  says  to  us.  Christian  men  and  women, 
if  you  want  the  power  for  holy  living,  have  fellowship 
in  that  atoning  death ;  and  if  you  want  the  pattern  of 
holy  living,  look  at  that  Cross  and  feel,  '  I  am  crucified 
to  the  world  by  it ;  and  the  life  that  I  live  in  the  flesh 
I  live  by  the  faith  of  the  Son  of  God.' 

Such  considerations  as  these,  however,  do  not  neces- 
sarily exclude  the  other  one  (which  we  may  just 
mention  and  dwell  on  for  a  moment),  namely,  that 
where  there  is  this  spiritual  participation  in  the 
sufferings  of  Christ,  and  where  His  death  is  repro- 
duced and  perpetuated,  as  it  were,  in  our  daily  morti- 
fying ourselves  in  the  present  evil  world — there  Christ 
is  with  us  in  our  afflictions.  God  forbid  that  I  should 
try  to  strike  away  any  word  of  consolation  that  has 
come,  as  these  words  of  my  text  have  come,  to  so 
many  sorrowing  hearts  in  all  generations,  like  music 
in  the  night  and  like  cold  waters  to  a  thirsty  soul.  We 
need  not  hold  that  there  is  no  reference  here  to  that 
comforting  thought, '  In  all  our  affliction  He  is  afflicted.' 
Brethren,  you  and  I  have,  each  of  us — one  in  one  way, 


168        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.  viii. 

and  one  in  another,  all  in  some  way,  all  in  the  right 
way,  none  in  too  severe  a  way,  none  in  too  slight  a 
way — to  tread  the  path  of  sorrow;  and  is  it  not  a 
blessed  thing,  as  we  go  along  through  that  dark  valley 
of  the  shadow  of  death  down  into  which  the  sunniest 
paths  go  sometimes,  to  come,  amidst  the  twilight  and 
the  gathering  clouds,  upon  tokens  that  Jesus  has  been 
on  the  road  before  us?  They  tell  us  that  in  some 
trackless  lands,  when  one  friend  passes  through  the 
pathless  forests,  he  breaks  a  twig  ever  and  anon  as  he 
goes,  that  those  who  come  after  may  see  the  traces  of 
his  having  been  there,  and  may  know  that  they  are 
not  out  of  the  road.  Oh,  when  we  are  journeying 
through  the  murky  night,  and  the  dark  woods  of 
affliction  and  sorrow,  it  is  something  to  find  here  and 
there  a  spray  broken,  or  a  leafy  stem  bent  down  with 
the  tread  of  His  foot  and  the  brush  of  His  hand  as  He 
passed,  and  to  remember  that  the  path  He  trod  He 
has  hallowed,  and  thus  to  find  lingering  fragrances 
and  hidden  strengths  in  the  remembrance  of  Him  as 
*  in  all  points  tempted  like  as  we  are,'  bearing  grief  for 
us,  bearing  grief  with  us,  bearing  grief  like  us. 

Oh,  do  not,  do  not,  my  brethren,  keep  these  sacred 
thoughts  of  Christ's  companionship  in  sorrow,  for  the 
larger  trials  of  life.  If  the  mote  in  the  eye  be  large 
enough  to  annoy  you,  it  is  large  enough  to  bring  out 
His  sympathy ;  and  if  the  grief  be  too  small  for  Him 
to  compassionate  and  share,  it  is  too  small  for  you  to 
be  troubled  by  it.  If  you  are  ashamed  to  apply  that 
divine  thought,  'Christ  bears  this  grief  with  me,'  to 
those  petty  molehills  that  you  sometimes  magnify  into 
mountains,  think  to  yourselves  that  then  it  is  a  shame 
for  you  to  be  stumbling  over  them.  But  on  the  other 
hand,  never  fear  to  be  irreverent  or  too  familiar  in 


V.17]       SUFFERING  WITH  CHRIST         169 

the  thought  that  Christ  is  willing  to  bear,  and  help 
you  to  bear,  the  pettiest,  the  minutest,  and  most  in- 
significant of  the  daily  annoyances  that  may  come  to 
ruffle  you.  Whether  it  be  a  poison  from  one  serpent 
sting,  or  whether  it  be  poison  from  a  million  of 
buzzing  tiny  mosquitoes,  if  there  be  a  smart,  go  to 
Him,  and  He  will  help  you  to  endure  it.  He  will  do 
more,  He  will  bear  it  with  you,  for  if  so  be  that  we 
suffer  with  Him,  He  suffers  with  us,  and  our  oneness 
with  Christ  brings  about  a  community  of  possessions 
whereby  it  becomes  true  of  each  trusting  soul  in  its 
relations  to  Him,  that  'all  mine  (joys  and  sorrows 
alike)  are  thine,  and  all  thine  are  mine.' 

II.  There  remain  some  other  considerations  which 
may  be  briefly  stated,  in  order  to  complete  the  lessons 
of  this  text.  In  the  second  place,  this  community  of 
suffering  is  a  necessary  preparation  for  the  com- 
munity of  glory. 

I  name  this  principally  for  the  sake  of  putting  in  a 
caution.  The  Apostle  does  not  mean  to  tell  us,  of 
course,  that  if  there  were  such  a  case  as  that  of  a 
man  becoming  a  son  of  God,  and  having  no  occasion 
or  opportunity  afterwards,  by  brevity  of  life  or  other 
causes,  for  passing  through  the  discipline  of  sorrow, 
his  inheritance  would  be  forfeited.  We  must  always 
take  such  passages  as  this — which  seem  to  make  the 
discipline  of  the  world  an  essential  part  of  the  pre- 
paring of  us  for  glory — in  conjunction  with  the  other 
undeniable  truth  which  completes  them,  that  when  a 
man  has  the  love  of  God  in  his  heart,  however  feebly, 
however  newly,  there  and  then  he  is  fit  for  the  in- 
heritance. I  think  that  Christian  people  make  vast 
mistakes  sometimes  in  talking  about  'being  made 
meet  for  the  inheritance  of  the  saints  in  light,'  about 


170        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.viii. 

being  •  ripe  for  glory/  and  the  like.  One  thing  at  any 
rate  is  very  certain,  it  is  not  the  discipline  that  fits. 
That  which  fits  goes  before  the  discipline,  and  the 
discipline  only  develops  the  fitness.  '  God  hath  made 
us  meet  for  the  inheritance  of  the  saints  in  light,* 
says  the  Apostle.  That  is  a  past  act.  The  prepared- 
ness for  heaven  comes  at  the  moment — if  it  be  a 
momentary  act — when  a  man  turns  to  Christ.  You 
may  take  the  lowest  and  most  abandoned  form  of 
human  character,  and  in  one  moment  (it  is  possible, 
and  it  is  often  the  case)  the  entrance  into  that  soul  of 
the  feeble  germ  of  that  new  affection  shall  at  once 
change  the  whole  moral  habitude  of  that  man. 
Though  it  be  true,  then,  that  heaven  is  only  open  to 
those  who  are  capable — by  holy  aspirations  and 
divine  desires— of  entering  into  it,  it  is  equally  true 
that  such  aspirations  and  desires  may  be  the  work  of 
an  instant,  and  may  be  superinduced  in  a  moment  in 
a  heart  the  most  debased  and  the  most  degraded. 
•  This  day  shalt  thou  be  with  Me  in  Paradise,'— ^i  for 
the  inheritance ! 

And,  therefore,  let  us  not  misunderstand  such  words 
as  this  text,  and  fancy  that  the  i  ecessary  discipline, 
which  we  have  to  go  through  before  we  are  ready  for 
heaven,  is  necessary  in  anything  like  the  same  sense 
in  which  it  is  necessary  that  a  man  should  have  faith 
in  Christ  in  order  to  be  saved.  The  one  may  be  dis- 
pensed with,  the  other  cannot.  A  Christian  at  any 
period  of  his  Christian  experience,  if  it  please  God  to 
take  him,  is  fit  for  the  kingdom.  The  life  is  life, 
whether  it  be  the  budding  beauty  and  feebleness  of 
childhood,  or  the  strength  of  manhood,  or  the  maturity 
and  calm  peace  of  old  age.  But  'add  to  your  faith,* 
that    'an    entrance    may    be    ministered    unto    you 


T.  17]       SUFFERING  WITH  CHRIST         171 

abundantly'  Remember  that  though  the  root  of  the 
m.atter,  the  seed  of  the  kingdom,  may  be  in  you ;  and 
that  though,  therefore,  you  have  a  right  to  feel  that, 
at  any  period  of  your  Christian  experience,  if  it  please 
God  to  take  you  out  of  this  world,  you  are  fit  for 
heaven — yet  in  His  mercy  He  is  leaving  you  here, 
training  you,  disciplining  you,  cleansing  you,  making 
you  to  be  polished  shafts  in  His  quiver ;  and  that  all 
the  glowing  furnaces  of  fiery  trial  and  all  the  cold 
waters  of  affliction  are  but  the  preparation  through 
which  the  rough  iron  is  to  be  passed  before  it  be- 
comes tempered  steel,  a  shaft  in  the  Master's  hand. 

And  so  learn  to  look  upon  all  trial  as  being  at  once 
the  seal  of  your  sonship,  and  the  means  by  which 
God  puts  it  within  your  power  to  win  a  higher  place, 
a  loftier  throne,  a  nobler  crown,  a  closer  fellowship 
with  Him  '  who  hath  suffered,  being  tempted,'  and  who 
will  receive  into  His  own  blessedness  and  rest  them 
that  are  tempted.  'The  child,  though  he  be  an  heir, 
differeth  nothing  from  a  servant,  though  he  be  lord 
of  all;  but  is  under  tutors  and  governors.'  God  puts 
us  in  the  school  of  sorrow  under  that  stern  tutor  and 
governor  here,  and  gives  us  the  opportunity  of  *  suffer- 
ing with  Christ,'  that  by  the  daily  crucifixion  of  our 
old  nature,  by  the  lessons  and  blessings  of  outward 
calamities  and  change,  there  may  grow  up  in  us  a  still 
nobler  and  purer,  and  perf ecter  divine  life ;  and  that 
we  may  so  be  made  capable — more  capable,  and  cap- 
able of  more — of  that  inheritance  for  which  the  only 
necessary  thing  is  the  death  of  Christ,  and  the  only 
fitness  is  faith  in  His  name. 

III.  Finally,  that  inheritance  is  the  necessary  result 
of  the  suffering  that  has  gone  before. 

The  suffering  results  from  our  union  with  Christ. 


172        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.  viii. 

That  union  must  needs  culminate  in  glory.  It  is  not 
only  because  the  joy  hereafter  seems  required  in  order 
to  vindicate  God's  love  to  His  children,  who  here  reap 
sorrow  from  their  sonship,  that  the  discipline  of  life 
cannot  but  end  in  blessedness.  That  ground  of  mere 
compensation  is  a  low  one  on  which  to  rest  the  certainty 
of  future  bliss.  But  the  inheritance  is  sure  to  all  who 
here  suffer  with  Christ,  because  the  one  cause — union 
with  the  Lord — produces  both  the  present  result  of 
fellowship  in  His  sorrows,  and  the  future  result  of  joy 
in  His  joy,  of  possession  of  His  possessions.  The  in- 
heritance is  sure  because  Christ  possesses  it  now.  The 
inheritance  is  sure  because  earth's  sorrows  not  merely 
require  to  be  repaid  by  its  peace,  but  because  they 
have  an  evident  design  to  fit  us  for  it,  and  it  would  be 
destructive  to  all  faith  in  God's  wisdom,  and  God's 
knowledge  of  His  own  purposes,  not  to  believe  that 
what  He  has  wrought  us  for  will  be  given  to  us. 
Trials  have  no  meaning,  unless  they  are  means  to  an 
end.  The  end  is  the  inheritance,  and  sorrows  here, 
as  well  as  the  Spirit's  work  here,  are  the  earnest  of 
the  inheritance.  Measure  the  greatness  of  the  glory 
by  what  has  preceded  it.  God  takes  all  these  years  of 
life,  and  all  the  sore  trials  and  afflictions  that  belong 
inevitably  to  an  earthly  career,  and  works  them  in, 
into  the  blessedness  that  shall  come.  If  a  fair 
measure  of  the  greatness  of  any  result  of  productive 
power  be  the  length  of  time  that  was  taken  for 
getting  it  ready,  we  can  dimly  conceive  what  that 
joy  must  be  for  which  seventy  years  of  strife  and 
pain  and  sorrow^  are  but  a  momentary  preparation; 
and  what  must  be  the  weight  of  that  glory  which  is 
the  counterpoise  and  consequence  to  the  afflictions  of 
this  lower  world.    The  further  the  pendulum  swings 


V.17]     THE  REVELATION  OF  SONS        173 

on  the  one  side,  the  further  it  goes  up  on  the  other. 
The  deeper  God  plunges  the  comet  into  the  darkness 
out  yonder,  the  closer  does  it  come  to  the  sun  at  its 
nearest  distance,  and  the  longer  does  it  stand  bask- 
ing and  glowing  in  the  full  blaze  of  the  glory  from 
the  central  orb.  So  in  our  revolution,  the  measure  of 
the  distance  from  the  farthest  point  of  our  darkest 
earthly  sorrow,  to  the  throne,  may  help  us  to  the 
measure  of  the  closeness  of  the  bright,  perfect,  per- 
petual glory  above,  when  we  are  on  the  throne  :  for  if 
so  be  that  we  are  sons,  we  must  suffer  with  Him ;  if 
so  be  that  we  suffer,  we  must  be  glorified  together ! 


THE  REVELATION  OF  SONS 

'For  the  earnest  expectation  of  the  creature  waiteth  for  the  manifeetatlon  of 
the  sons  of  God.'— Romans  viii.  19. 

The  Apostle  has  been  describing  believers  as  'sons' 
and  '  heirs.'  He  drops  from  these  transcendent  heights 
to  contrast  their  present  apparent  condition  with  their 
true  character  and  their  future  glory.  The  sad  realities 
of  suffering  darken  his  lofty  hopes,  even  although 
these  sad  realities  are  to  his  faith  tokens  of  joint- 
heirship  with  Jesus,  and  pledges  that  if  our  inheritance 
is  here  manifested  by  suffering  with  him,  that  very 
fact  is  a  prophecy  of  common  glory  hereafter.  He 
describes  that  future  as  the  revealing  of  a  glory,  to 
which  the  sufferings  of  this  present  time  are  not 
worthy  to  be  compared;  and  then,  in  our  text  he 
varies  the  application  of  that  thought  of  revealing 
and  thinks  of  the  subjects  of  it  as  being  the  *  sons 
of  God.'  They  will  be  revealed  when  the  glory  which 
they  have   as   joint-heirs  with  Christ  is  revealed  in 


174        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.  vm. 

them.  They  walk,  as  it  were,  compassed  with  mist 
and  cloud,  but  the  splendour  which  will  fall  on  them 
will  scatter  the  envious  darkness,  and  'when  Christ 
who  is  our  life  shall  appear,  then  shall  His  co-heirs 
also  appear  with  Him  in  glory.' 

We  may  consider — 

I.  The  present  veil  over  the  sons  of  God. 

There  is  always  a  difference  between  appearance  and 
reality,  between  the  ideal  and  its  embodiments.  For 
all  men  it  is  true  that  the  full  expression  of  oneself 
is  impossible.  Each  man's  deeds  fall  short  of  disclosing 
the  essential  self  in  the  man.  Every  will  is  hampered 
by  the  fleshly  screen  of  the  body.  •!  would  that  my 
tongue  could  utter  the  thoughts  that  arise  in  me,'  is 
the  yearning  of  every  heart  that  is  deeply  moved. 
Contending  principles  successively  sway  every  person- 
ality and  thwart  each  other's  expression.  For  these, 
and  many  other  reasons,  the  sum-total  of  every  life  is 
but  a  shrouded  representation  of  the  man  who  lives  it ; 
and  we,  all  of  us,  after  all  efforts  at  self-revelation, 
remain  mysteries  to  our  fellows  and  to  ourselves.  All 
this  is  eminently  true  of  the  sons  of  God.  They  have 
a  life-germ  hidden  in  their  souls,  which  in  its  very 
nature  is  destined  to  fill  and  expand  their  whole 
being,  and  to  permeate  with  its  triumphant  energy 
every  corner  of  their  nature.  But  it  is  weak  and  often 
overborne  by  its  opposite.  The  seed  sown  is  to  grow 
in  spite  of  bad  weather  and  a  poor  soil  and  many 
weeds,  and  though  it  is  destined  to  overcome  all  these, 
it  may  to-day  only  be  able  to  show  on  the  surface 
a  little  patch  of  pale  and  struggling  growth.  When 
we  think  of  the  cost  at  which  the  life  of  Christ  was 
imparted  to  men,  and  of  the  divine  source  from  which 
it  comes,  and  of  the  sedulous  and  protracted  discipline 


V.19]     THE  REVELATION  OF  SONS        175 

through  which  it  is  being  trained,  we  cannot  but 
conclude  that  nothing  short  of  its  universal  dominion 
over  all  the  faculties  of  its  imperfect  possessors  can  be 
the  goal  of  its  working.  Hercules  in  his  cradle  is  still 
Hercules,  and  strangles  snakes.  Frost  and  sun  may- 
struggle  in  midwinter,  and  the  cold  may  seem  to 
predominate,  but  the  sun  is  steadily  enlarging  its 
course  in  the  sky,  and  increasing  the  fervour  of  its 
beams,  and  midsummer  day  is  as  sure  to  dawn  as  the 
shortest  day  was. 

The  sons  of  God,  even  more  truly  than  other  men, 
have  contending  principles  fighting  within  them.  It 
was  the  same  Apostle  who  with  oaths  denied  that  he 
•  knew  the  man,'  and  in  a  passion  of  clinging  love  and 
penitence  fell  at  His  feet ;  but  for  the  mere  onlooker  it 
would  be  hard  to  say  which  was  the  true  man  and 
which  would  conquer.  The  sons  of  God,  like  other 
men,  have  to  express  themselves  in  words  which  are 
never  closely  enough  fitted  to  their  thoughts  and 
feelings.  David's  penitence  has  to  be  contented  with 
groans  which  are  not  deep  enough;  and  John's  calm 
raptures  on  his  Saviour's  breast  can  only  be  spoken  by 
shut  eyes  and  silence.  The  sons  of  God  never  fully 
correspond  to  their  character,  but  always  fall  some- 
what beneath  their  desire,  and  must  always  be  some- 
what less  than  their  intention.  The  artist  never  wholly 
embodies  his  conception.  It  is  only  God  who  'rests 
from  His  works,'  because  the  works  fully  embody 
His  creative  design  and  fully  receive  the  benediction 
of  His  own  satisfaction  with  them. 

From  all  such  thoughts  there  arises  a  piece  of  plain 
practical  wisdom,  which  warns  Christian  men  not 
to  despond  or  despair  if  they  do  not  find  themselves 
living  up  to  their  ideal.    The  sons  of  God  are  '  veiled ' 


176        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.  viii. 

because  the  world's  estimate  of  them  is  untrue.  The 
old  commonplace  that  the  world  knows  nothing  of 
its  greatest  men  is  verified  in  the  opinions  which  it 
holds  about  the  sons  of  God.  It  is  not  for  their 
Christianity  that  they  get  any  of  the  world's  honours 
and  encomiums,  if  such  fall  to  their  share.  They  are 
unknown  and  yet  well-known.  They  live  for  the 
most  part  veiled  in  obscurity.  'The  light  shineth  in 
darkness,  and  the  darkness  comprehendeth  it  not.' 
They  are  God's  hidden  ones.  If  they  are  wise,  they 
will  look  for  no  recognition  nor  eulogy  from  the 
world,  and  will  be  content  to  live,  as  unknown  by 
the  princes  of  this  world  as  was  the  Lord  of  glory, 
whom  they  slew  because  their  dim  eyes  could  not  see 
the  flashing  of  the  glory  '  through  the  veil,  that  is  to 
say.  His  flesh.'  But  no  consciousness  of  imperfection 
in  our  revelation  of  an  indwelling  Christ  must  ever 
be  allowed  to  diminish  our  efforts  to  live  out  the  life 
that  is  in  us,  and  to  shine  as  lights  in  the  world ;  nor 
must  the  consciousness  that  we  walk  as  •  veiled,'  lead 
us  to  add  to  the  thick  folds  the  criminal  one  of 
voluntary  silence  and  cowardly  hiding  in  dumb  hearts 
the  secret  of  our  lives. 

II.  The  unveiling  of  the  sons  of  God. 

That  unveiling  is  in  the  text  represented  as  coming 
along  with  the  glory  which  shall  be  revealed  to  us- 
ward,  and  as  being  contemporaneous  with  the  deliver- 
ance of  the  creation  itself  from  the  bondage  of  corrup- 
tion, and  its  passing  into  the  liberty  of  the  glory  of  the 
children  of  God.  It  coincides  with  the  vanishing  of 
the  pain  in  which  the  whole  creation  now  groans  and 
travails,  and  with  the  adoption — that  is,  the  redemption 
of  our  body.  Then  hope  will  be  seen  and  will  pass 
into  still  fruition.    All  this  points  to  the  time  when 


V.19]      THE  REVELATION  OF  SONS       177 

Jesus  Christ  is  revealed,  and  His  servants  are  revealed 
with  Him  in  glory.  That  revelation  brings  with  it  of 
necessity  the  manifestation  of  the  sons  of  God  for 
what  they  are — the  making  visible  in  the  life  of  what 
God  sees  them  to  be. 

That  revelation  of  the  sons  of  God  is  the  result  of 
the  entire  dominion  and  transforming  supremacy  of 
the  Spirit  of  God  in  them.  In  the  whole  sweep  of  their 
consciousness  there  will  in  that  day  be  nothing  done 
from  other  motives ;  there  will  be  no  sidelights  flash- 
ing in  and  disturbing  the  perfect  illumination  from  the 
candle  of  the  Lord  set  on  high  in  their  being;  there 
will  be  no  contradictions  in  the  life.  It  will  be  one 
and  simple,  and  therefore  perfectly  intelligible.  Such 
is  the  destined  issue  of  the  most  imperfect  Christian 
life.  The  Christian  man  who  has  in  his  experience 
to-day  the  faintest  and  most  interrupted  operation 
of  the  spirit  of  life  in  Christ  Jesus  has  therein  a  pledge 
of  immortality,  because  nothing  short  of  an  endless 
life  of  progressive  and  growing  purity  will  be  adequate 
to  receive  and  exemplify  the  power  which  can  never 
terminate  until  it  is  made  like  Him  and  perfectly  seeing 
Him  as  He  is. 

But  that  unveiling  further  guarantees  the  possession 
of  fully  adequate  means  of  expression.  The  limitations 
and  imperfections  of  our  present  bodily  life  will  all 
drop  away  in  putting  on  *the  body  of  glory'  which 
shall  be  ours.  The  new  tongue  will  perfectly  utter 
the  new  knowledge  and  rapture  of  the  new  life ;  new 
hands  will  perfectly  realise  our  ideals;  and  on  every 
forehead  will  be  stamped  Christ's  new  name. 

That  unveiling  will  be  further  realised  by  a  divine 
act  indicating  the  characters  of  the  sons  of  God  by 
their  position.    Earth's  judgments  will  be  reversed  by 

M 


178        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.viii. 

that  divine  voice,  and  the  great  promise,  which  through 
weary  ages  has  shone  as  a  f ar-o£P  star, — '  I  will  set  him 
on  high  because  he  hath  known  my  name ' — will  then 
be  known  for  the  sun  near  at  hand.  Many  names 
loudly  blown  through  the  world's  trumpet  will  fall 
silent  then.  Many  stars  will  be  quenched,  but  '  they 
that  be  wise  shall  shine  as  the  brightness  of  the 
firmament.' 

That  revelation  will  be  more  surprising  to  no  one 
than  to  those  who  are  its  subjects,  when  they  see 
themselves  mirrored  in  that  glass,  and  so  unlike  what 
they  are  here.  Their  first  impulse  will  be  to  wonder  at 
the  form  they  see,  and  to  ask,  almost  with  incredulity, 
'Lord,  is  it  I?'  Nor  will  the  wonder  be  less  when 
they  recognise  many  whom  they  knew  not.  The  sur- 
prises when  the  family  of  God  is  gathered  together 
at  last  will  be  great.  The  Israel  of  Captivity  lifts  up 
her  wondering  eyes  as  she  sees  the  multitudes  flocking 
to  her  side  as  the  doves  to  their  windows,  and,  half- 
ashamed  of  her  own  narrow  vision,  exclaims,  *!  was 
left  alone ;  these,  where  had  they  been  ? '  Let  us  rejoice 
that  in  the  day  when  the  sons  of  God  are  revealed, 
many  hidden  ones  from  many  dark  corners  will  sit  at 
the  Father's  table.  That  revelation  will  be  made  to 
the  whole  universe ;  we  know  not  how,  but  we  know 
that  it  shall  be ;  and,  as  the  text  tells  us,  that  revela- 
tion of  the  sons  of  God  is  the  hope  for  which  'the 
earnest  expectation  of  the  creature  waits '  through  the 
weary  ages. 


THE  REDEMPTION  OF  THE  BODY 

•The  adoption,  to  wit,  the  redemption  of  our  body.'— Romans  viii.  23. 

In  a  previous  verse  Paul  has  said  that  all  true 
Christians  have  received  •  the  Spirit  of  adoption.' 
They  become  sons  of  God  through  Christ  the  Son. 
They  receive  a  new  spiritual  and  divine  life  from  God 
through  Christ,  and  that  life  is  like  its  source.  In  so 
far  as  that  new  life  vitalises  and  dominates  their 
nature,  believers  have  received  '  the  Spirit  of  adoption,' 
and  by  it  they  cry  *  Abba,  Father.'  But  the  body  still 
remains  a  source  of  weakness,  the  seat  of  sin.  It  is 
sluggish  and  inapt  for  high  purposes ;  it  still  remains 
subject  to  'the  law  of  sin  and  death';  and  so  is  not 
like  the  Father  who  breathed  into  it  the  breath  of  life. 
It  remains  in  bondage,  and  has  not  yet  received  the 
adoption.  This  text,  in  harmony  with  the  Apostle's 
whole  teaching,  looks  forward  to  a  change  in  the  body 
and  in  its  relations  to  the  renewed  spirit,  as  the  crown 
and  climax  of  the  work  of  redemption,  and  declares 
that  till  that  change  is  effected,  the  condition  of 
Christian  men  is  imperfect,  and  is  a  waiting,  and  often 
a  groaning. 

In  dealing  with  some  of  the  thoughts  that  arise 
from  this  text,  we  note — 

I.  That  a  future  bodily  life  is  needed  in  order  to  give 
definiteness  and  solidity  to  the  conception  of  immor- 
tality. 

Before  the  Gospel  came  men's  belief  in  a  future  life 
was  vague  and  powerless,  mainly  because  it  had  no 
Gospel  of  the  Resurrection,  and  so  nothing  tangible  to 
lay  hold  on.  The  Gospel  has  made  the  belief  in  a 
future    state    infinitely    easier    and   more    powerful, 

170 


180        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.viii. 

mainly  because  of  the  emphasis  with  which  it  has 
proclaimed  an  actual  resurrection  and  a  future  bodily 
life.  Its  great  proof  of  immortality  is  drawn,  not 
merely  from  ethical  considerations  of  the  manifest 
futility  of  earthly  life  which  has  no  sequel  beyond 
the  grave,  nor  from  the  intuitions  and  longings  of 
men's  souls,  but  from  the  historical  fact  of  the 
Resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  of  His  Ascension  in 
bodily  form  into  heaven.  It  proclaims  these  two  facts 
as  parts  of  His  experience,  and  asserts  that  when  He 
rose  from  the  dead  and  ascended  up  on  high.  He  did  so 
as  *  the  first-born  among  many  brethren,'  their  fore- 
runner and  their  pattern.  It  is  this  which  gives  the 
Gospel  its  power,  and  thus  transforms  a  vague  and 
shadowy  conception  of  immortality  into  a  solid  faith, 
for  which  we  have  already  an  historical  guarantee. 
Stupendous  mysteries  still  veil  the  nature  of  the  re- 
surrection process,  though  these  are  exaggerated  into 
inconceivabilities  by  false  notions  of  what  constitutes 
personal  identity ;  but  if  the  choice  lies  between  accept- 
ing the  Christian  doctrine  of  a  resurrection  and  the 
conception  of  a  finite  spirit  disembodied  and  yet  active, 
there  can  be  no  doubt  as  to  which  of  these  two  is  the 
more  reasonable  and  thinkable.  Body,  soul,  and  spirit 
make  the  complete  triune  man. 

The  thought  of  the  future  life  as  a  bodily  life  satisfies 
the  longings  of  the  heart.  Much  natural  shrinking 
from  death  comes  from  unwillingness  to  part  company 
with  an  old  companion  and  friend.  As  Paul  puts  it  in 
2nd  Corinthians,  '  Not  for  that  we  would  be  unclothed, 
but  clothed  upon.'  All  thoughts  of  the  future  which  do 
not  give  prominence  to  the  idea  of  a  bodily  life  open 
up  but  a  ghastly  and  uninviting  mode  of  existence, 
which  cannot  but  repel  those  who  are  accustomed  to 


V.23]     REDEMPTION  OF  THE  BODY      181 

the  fellowship  of  their  bodies,  and  they  feel  that  they 
cannot  think  of  themselves  as  deprived  of  that  which 
was  their  servant  and  instrument,  through  all  the 
years  of  their  earthly  consciousness. 

II.  *  The  body  that  shall  be '  is  an  emancipated  body. 

The  varied  gifts  of  the  Spirit  bestowed  upon  the 
Christian  Church  served  to  quicken  the  hope  of  the 
yet  greater  gifts  of  that  indwelling  Spirit  which  were 
yet  to  come.  Chief  amongst  these  our  text  considers 
the  transformation  of  the  earthly  into  a  spiritual 
body.  This  transformation  our  text  regards  as  being 
the  participation  by  the  body  in  the  redemption  by 
which  Christ  has  bought  us  with  the  great  price  of  His 
blood.  We  have  to  interpret  the  language  here  in  the 
light  of  the  further  teaching  of  Paul  in  the  great  Resur- 
rection chapter  of  Ist  Corinthians,  which  distinctly  lays 
stress,  not  on  the  identity  of  the  corporeal  frame  which 
is  laid  in  the  grave  with  *  the  body  of  glory,'  but  upon 
the  entire  contrast  between  the  '  natural  body,'  which  is 
fit  organ  for  the  lower  nature,  and  is  informed  by  it, 
and  the  '  spiritual  body,'  which  is  fit  organ  for  the 
spirit.  We  have  to  interpret  'the  resurrection  of 
the  body  '  by  the  definite  apostolic  declaration,  '  Thou 
sowest  not  that  body  that  shall  be  .  .  .  but  God  giveth 
it  a  body  as  it  hath  pleased  Him ' ;  and  we  have  to  give 
full  weight  to  the  contrasts  which  the  Apostle  draws 
between  the  characteristics  of  that  which  is  *  sown '  and 
of  that  which  is  *  raised.'  The  one  is  •  sown  in  corruption 
and  raised  in  incorruption.'  Natural  decay  is  con- 
trasted with  immortal  youth.  The  one  is  'sown  in 
dishonour,'  the  other  is  '  raised  in  glory.'  That  contrast 
is  ethical,  and  refers  either  to  the  subordinate  position 
of  the  body  here  in  relation  to  the  spirit,  or  to  the 
natural  sense  of  shame,  or  to  the  ideas  of  degradation 


182        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.viii. 

which  are  attached  to  the  indulgence  of  the  appetites. 
The  one  is  '  sown  in  weakness,'  the  other  is  '  raised  in 
power ' ;  the  one  is  '  sown  a  natural  body,'  the  other  is 
'raised  a  spiritual  body.'  Is  not  Paul  in  this  whole 
series  of  contrasts  thinking  primarily  of  the  vision 
which  he  saw  on  the  road  to  Damascus  when  the  risen 
Christ  appeared  before  him?  And  had  not  the  years 
which  had  passed  since  then  taught  him  to  see  in  the 
ascended  Christ  the  prophecy  and  the  pattern  of  what 
His  servants  should  become?  We  have  further  to 
keep  in  view  Paul's  other  representation  in  2nd  Cor- 
inthians v.,  where  he  strongly  puts  the  contrast  between 
the  corporeal  environment  of  earth  and  'the  body  of 
glory,'  which  belongs  to  the  future  life,  in  his  two 
images :  '  the  earthly  house  of  this  tabernacle,' — a  clay 
hut  which  lasts  but  for  a  time, — and  '  the  building  of 
God,  the  house  not  made  with  hands  and  eternal.'  The 
body  is  an  occasion  of  separation  from  the  Lord. 

These  considerations  may  well  lead  us  to,  at  least, 
general  outlines  on  which  a  confident  and  peaceful 
hope  may  fix.  For  example,  they  lead  us  to  the  thought 
that  that  redeemed  body  is  no  more  subject  to  decay 
and  death,  is  no  more  weighed  upon  by  weakness  and 
weariness,  has  no  work  beyond  its  strength,  needs 
no  sustenance  by  food,  and  no  refreshment  of  sleep. 
'  The  Lamb  which  is  in  the  midst  of  the  throne  shall 
feed  them,'  suggests  strength  constantly  communicated 
by  a  direct  divine  gift.  And  from  all  these  negative 
characteristics  there  follows  that  there  will  be  in  that 
future  bodily  life  no  epochs  of  age  marked  by  bodily 
changes.  The  two  young  men  who  were  seen  sitting 
in  the  sepulchre  of  Jesus  had  lived  before  Adam,  and 
would  seem  as  young  if  we  saw  them  to-day. 

Similarly  the  redeemed  body  will  be  a  more  perfect 


V.23]    REDEMPTION  OF  THE  BODY       183 

instrument  for  communication  with  the  external  uni- 
verse. We  know  that  the  present  body  conditions  our 
knowledge,  and  that  our  senses  do  not  take  cognisance 
of  all  the  qualities  of  material  things.  Microscopes 
and  telescopes  have  enlarged  our  field  of  vision,  and 
have  brought  the  infinitely  small  and  the  infinitely 
distant  within  our  range.  Our  ear  hears  vibrations 
at  a  certain  rate  per  second,  and  no  doubt  if  it  were 
more  delicately  organised  we  could  hear  sounds  where 
now  is  silence.  Sometimes  the  creatures  whom  we 
call '  inferior '  seem  to  have  senses  that  apprehend  much 
of  which  we  are  not  aware.  Balaam's  ass  saw  the 
obstructing  angel  before  Balaam  did.  Nor  is  there  any 
reason  to  suppose  that  all  the  powers  of  the  mind  find 
tools  to  work  with  in  the  body.  It  is  possible  that  that 
body  which  is  the  fit  instrument  of  the  spirit  may 
become  its  means  of  knowing  more  deeply,  thinking 
more  wisely,  understanding  more  swiftly,  comprehend- 
ing more  widely,  remembering  more  firmly  and  judging 
more  soundly.  It  is  possible  that  the  contrast  between 
then  and  now  may  be  like  the  contrast  between  tele- 
graph and  slow  messenger  in  regard  to  the  rapidity, 
between  photograph  and  poor  daub  in  regard  to  the 
truthfulness,  between  a  full-orbed  circle  and  a  frag- 
mentary arc  in  regard  to  the  completeness  of  the 
messages  which  the  body  brings  to  the  indwelling  self. 
But,  once  more,  the  body  unredeemed  has  appetites 
and  desires  which  may  lead  to  their  own  satisfaction, 
which  do  lead  to  sordid  cares  and  weary  toil.  '  The 
flesh  lusts  against  the  spirit  and  the  spirit  against  the 
flesh.'  The  redeemed  body  will  have  in  it  nothing  to 
tempt  and  nothing  to  clog,  but  will  be  a  helper  to  the 
spirit  and  a  source  of  strength.  Glorious  work  of  God 
as  the  body  is,  it  has  its  weaknesses,  its  limitations, 


184        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.viii. 

and  its  tendenciea  to  evil.  We  must  not  be  tempted 
into  brooding  over  unanswered  questions  as  to  *  How 
do  the  dead  rise,  and  with  what  body  do  they  come  ? ' 
But  we  can  lift  our  eyes  to  the  mountain-top  where 
Jesus  went  up  to  pray.  '  And  as  He  prayed  the  fashion 
of  His  countenance  was  altered,  and  His  raiment 
became  white  and  dazzling ' ;  and  He  was  capable  of 
entering  into  the  Shekinah  cloud  and  holding  fellowship 
therein  with  the  Father,  who  attested  His  Sonship 
and  bade  us  listen  to  His  voice.  And  we  can  look  to 
Olivet  and  follow  the  ascending  Jesus  as  He  lets  His 
benediction  drop  on  the  upturned  faces  of  His  friends, 
until  He  again  passes  into  the  Shekinah  cloud,  and 
leaving  the  world,  goes  to  the  Father.  And  from  both 
His  momentary  transfiguration  and  His  permanent 
Ascension  we  can  draw  the  certain  assurance  that '  He 
shall  fashion  anew  the  body  of  our  humiliation,  that  it 
may  be  conformed  to  the  body  of  His  glory,  according 
to  the  working  whereby  He  is  able  even  to  subdue  all 
things  unto  Himself.' 

III.  The  redeemed  body  is  a  consequence  of  Christ's 
indwelling  Spirit. 

It  is  no  natural  result  of  death  or  resurrection,  but  is 
the  outcome  of  the  process  begun  on  earth,  by  which, 
'through  faith  and  the  righteousness  of  faith,'  the 
spirit  is  life.  The  context  distinctly  enforces  this  view 
by  its  double  use  of  '  adoption,'  which  in  one  aspect  has 
already  been  received,  and  is  manifested  by  the  fact 
that  'now  are  we  the  sons  of  God,'  and  in  another 
aspect  is  still  '  waited '  for.  The  Christian  man  in  his 
regenerated  spirit  has  been  born  again ;  the  Christian 
man  still  waits  for  the  completion  of  that  sonship  in  a 
time  when  the  regenerated  spirit  will  no  longer  dwell  in 
the  clay  cottage  of  '  this  tabernacle,'  but  will  inhabit  a 


V.23]    REDEMPTION  OF  THE  BODY       185 

congruous  dwelling  in  '  the  building  of  God  not  made 
with  hands,  eternal  in  the  heavens.' 

Scripture  is  too  healthy  and  comprehensive  to  be 
contented  with  a  merely  spiritual  regeneration,  and  is 
withal  too  spiritual  to  be  satisfied  with  a  merely  material 
heaven.  It  gives  full  place  to  both  elements,  and  yet 
decisively  puts  all  belonging  to  the  latter  second.  It 
lays  down  the  laws  that  for  a  complete  humanity  there 
must  be  body  as  well  as  spirit ;  that  there  must  be  a 
correspondence  between  the  two,  and  as  is  the  spirit  so 
must  the  body  be,  and  further,  that  the  process  must 
begin  at  the  centre  and  work  outwards,  so  that  the 
spirit  must  first  be  transformed,  and  then  the  body 
must  be  participant  of  the  transformation. 

All  that  Scripture  says  about  '  rising  in  glory '  is 
said  about  believers.  It  is  represented  as  a  spiritual 
process.  They  who  have  the  Spirit  of  God  in  their 
spirits  because  they  have  it  receive  the  glorified  body 
which  is  like  their  Saviour's.  It  is  not  enough  to 
die  in  order  to  *  rise  glorious.'  *  If  the  Spirit  of  Him 
that  raised  up  Jesus  from  the  dead  dwell  in  you.  He 
that  raised  up  Christ  from  the  dead  shall  also  quicken 
your  mortal  bodies  by  His  Spirit  that  dwelleth  in  you.' 
The  resurrection  is  promised  for  all  mankind,  but  it 
may  be  a  resurrection  in  which  there  shall  be  endless 
living  and  no  glory,  nor  any  beauty  and  no  blessedness. 
But  the  body  may  be  *  sown  in  weakness,'  and  in  weak- 
ness raised  ;  it  may  be  '  sown  in  dishonour '  and  in  dis- 
honour raised ;  it  may  be  sown  dead,  and  raised  a  living 
death.  '  Many  of  them  that  sleep  in  the  dust  of  the 
earth  shall  awake,  some  to  everlasting  life,  and  some 
to  shame  and  everlasting  contempt.'  Does  that  mean 
nothing  ?  •  They  that  have  done  evil  to  the  resurrec- 
tion of   condemnation.'     Does   that   mean   nothing? 


186        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.viii. 

There  are  dark  mysteries  in  these  and  similar  words  of 
Scripture  which  should  make  us  all  pause  and  solemnly 
reflect.  The  sole  way  which  leads  to  the  resurrection 
of  glory  is  the  way  of  faith  in  Jesus  Christ.  If  we 
yield  ourselves  to  Him,  He  will  plant  His  Spirit  in  our 
spirits,  will  guide  and  growingly  sanctify  us  through 
life,  will  deliver  us  by  the  indwelling  of  the  Spirit  of 
life  in  Him  from  the  law  of  sin  and  death.  Nor  will 
His  transforming  power  cease  till  it  has  pervaded  our 
whole  being  with  its  fiery  energy,  and  we  stand  at  the 
last  men  like  Christ,  redeemed  in  body,  soul,  and  spirit, 
'  according  to  the  mighty  working  whereby  He  is  able 
to  subdue  all  things  unto  Himself.' 


THE  INTERCEDING  SPIRIT 

'The  Spirit  itself  maketh  intercession  for  us  with  groanings  which  cannot  be 
uttered.'— Romans  viii,  26. 

Pentecost  was  a  transitory  sign  of  a  perpetual  gift. 
The  tongues  of  fire  and  the  rushing  mighty  wind, 
which  were  at  first  the  most  conspicuous  results  of 
the  gifts  of  the  Spirit,  tongues,  and  prophecies,  and 
gifts  of  healing,  which  were  to  the  early  Church  itself 
and  to  onlookers  palpable  demonstrations  of  an  in- 
dwelling power,  were  little  more  lasting  than  the  fire 
and  the  wind.  Does  anything  remain?  This  whole 
great  chapter  is  Paul's  triumphant  answer  to  such  a 
question.  The  Spirit  of  God  dwells  in  every  believer 
as  the  source  of  his  true  life,  is  for  him  '  the  Spirit  of 
adoption,'  and  witnesses  with  his  spirit  that  he  is  a 
child  of  God,  and  a  joint-heir  with  Christ.  Not  only 
does  that  Spirit  co-operate  with  the  human  spirit  in  this 
witness-bearing,  but  the  verse,  of  which  our  text  is  a 


V.26]       THE  INTERCEDING  SPIRIT        187 

part,  points  to  another  form  of  co-operation :  for  the 
word  rendered  in  the  earlier  part  of  the  verse  *helpeth' 
in  the  original  suggests  more  distinctly  that  the  Spirit 
of  God  in  His  intercession  for  us  works  in  association 
with  us. 
First,  then — 

I.  The  Spirit's  intercession  is  not  carried  on  apart 
from  us. 

Much  modern  hymnology  goes  wrong  in  this  point, 
that  it  represents  the  Spirit's  intercession  as  pre- 
sented in  heaven  rather  than  as  taking  place  within 
the  personal  being  of  the  believer.  There  is  a  broad 
distinction  carefully  observed  throughout  Scripture 
between  the  representations  of  the  work  of  Christ 
and  that  of  the  Spirit  of  Christ.  The  former  in  its 
character  and  revelation  and  attainment  was  wrought 
upon  earth,  and  in  its  character  of  intercession  and 
bestowment  of  blessings  is  discharged  at  the  right 
hand  of  God  in  heaven ;  the  whole  of  the  Spirit's  work, 
on  the  other  hand,  is  wrought  in  human  spirits  here. 
The  context  speaks  of  intercession  expressed  in  '  groan- 
ings  which  cannot  be  uttered,'  and  which,  unexpressed 
though  they  are,  are  fully  understood  'by  Him  who 
searches  the  heart.'  Plainly,  therefore,  these  groan- 
ings  come  from  human  hearts,  and  as  plainly  are  the 
Divine  Spirit's  voicing  them. 

II.  The  Spirit's  intercession  in  our  spirits  consists  in 
our  own  divinely -inspired  longings. 

The  Apostle  has  just  been  speaking  of  another 
groaning  within  ourselves,  which  is  the  expression  of 
*  the  earnest  expectation '  of  '  the  adoption,  to  wit,  the 
redemption  of  our  body ';  and  he  says  that  that  longing 
will  be  the  more  patient  the  more  it  is  full  of  hope. 
This,  then,  is  Paul's  conception  of  the  normal  attitude 


188        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.viii. 

of  a  Christian  soul ;  but  that  attitude  is  hard  to  keep 
up  in  one's  own  strength,  because  of  the  distractions  of 
time  and  sense  which  are  ever  tending  to  disturb  the 
continuity  and  fixity  of  that  onward  look,  and  to  lead 
us  rather  to  be  satisfied  with  the  gross,  dull  present. 
That  redemption  of  the  body,  with  all  which  it  implies 
and  includes,  ought  to  be  the  supreme  object  to  which 
each  Christian  heart  should  ever  be  turning,  and  Chris- 
tian prayers  should  be  directed.  But  our  own  daily 
experience  makes  us  only  too  sure  that  such  elevation 
above,  and  remoteness  from  earthly  thoughts,  with  all 
their  pettinesses  and  limitations,  is  impossible  for  us  in 
our  own  strength.  As  Paul  puts  it  here,  '  We  know  not 
what  to  pray  for ' ;  nor  can  we  fix  and  focus  our  desires, 
nor  present  them  '  as  we  ought.'  It  is  to  this  weakness 
and  incompleteness  of  our  desires  and  prayers  that 
the  help  of  the  Spirit  is  directed.  He  strengthens  our 
longings  by  His  own  direct  operation.  The  more  vivid 
our  anticipations  and  the  more  steadfast  our  hopes, 
and  the  more  our  spirits  reach  out  to  that  future 
redemption,  the  more  are  we  bound  to  discern  some- 
thing more  than  human  imaginings  in  them,  and  to  be 
sure  that  such  visions  are  too  good  not  to  be  true,  too 
solid  to  be  only  the  play  of  our  own  fancy.  The  more 
we  are  conscious  of  these  experiences  as  our  own,  the 
more  certain  we  shall  be  that  in  them  it  is  not  we 
that  speak,  but '  the  Spirit  of  the  Father  that  speaketh 
in  us.' 

III.  These  divinely-inspired  longings  are  incapable 
of  full  expression. 

They  are  shallow  feelings  that  can  be  spoken. 
Language  breaks  down  in  the  attempt  to  express  our 
deepest  emotions  and  our  truest  love.  For  all  the 
deepest  things  in  man,  inarticulate  utterance  is  the 


V.  26]       THE  INTERCEDING  SPIRIT         189 

most  self -revealing.  Grief  can  say  more  in  a  sob  and 
a  tear  than  in  many  weak  words ;  love  finds  its  tongue 
in  the  light  of  an  eye  and  the  clasp  of  a  hand.  The 
groanings  which  rise  from  the  depths  of  the  Christian 
soul  cannot  be  forced  into  the  narrow  frame-work  of 
human  language ;  and  just  because  they  are  unutter- 
able are  to  be  recognised  as  the  voice  of  the  Holy 
Spirit, 

But  where  amidst  the  Christian  experience  of  to-day 
shall  we  find  anything  in  the  least  like  these  un- 
utterable longings  after  the  redemption  of  the  body 
which  Paul  here  takes  it  for  granted  are  the  experience 
of  all  Christians?  There  is  no  more  startling  con- 
demnation of  the  average  Christianity  of  our  times 
than  the  calm  certainty  with  which  through  all  this 
epistle  the  Apostle  takes  it  for  granted  that  the 
experience  of  the  Roman  Christians  will  universally 
endorse  his  statements.  Look  for  a  moment  at  what 
these  statements  are.  Listen  to  the  briefest  summary 
of  them  :  '  We  cry,  Abba,  Father ' ;  *  We  are  children  of 
God ' ;  '  We  suffer  with  Him  that  we  may  be  glorified 
with  Him ' ;  '  Glory  shall  be  revealed  to  usward ' ;  '  We 
have  the  first-fruits  of  the  Spirit ' ;  '  We  ourselves 
groan  within  ourselves  ' ;  '  By  hope  were  we  saved ' ; 
'  We  hope  for  that  which  we  see  not ' ;  '  Then  do  we 
with  patience  wait  for  it ' ;  '  We  know  that  to  them 
that  love  God  all  things  work  together  for  good ' ;  *  In 
all  these  things  we  are  more  than  conquerors ' ; 
•Neither  death  nor  life  .  .  .  nor  any  other  creature 
shall  be  able  to  separate  us  from  tht  love  of  God.'  He 
believed  that  in  these  rapturous  and  triumphant  words 
he  was  gathering  together  the  experience  of  every 
Roman  Christian,  and  would  evoke  from  their  lips  a 
confident  *  Amen.'    Where  are  the  commun  ties  to-day 


190        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.viii. 

in  whose  hearing  these  words  could  be  reiterated  with 
the  like  assurance  ?  How  few  among  us  there  are 
who  know  anything  of  these  *  groanings  which  cannot 
be  uttered!'  How  few  among  us  there  are  whose 
spirits  are  stretching  out  eager  desires  towards  the 
land  of  perpetual  summer,  like  migratory  birds  in 
northern  latitudes  when  the  autumn  days  are  shorten- 
ing and  the  temperature  is  falling ! 

But,  however  we  must  feel  that  our  poor  experience 
falls  far  short  of  the  ideal  in  our  text,  an  ideal  which 
was  to  some  extent  realised  in  the  early  Christian 
Church,  we  must  beware  of  taking  the  imperfections  of 
our  experience  as  any  evidence  of  the  unreality  of  our 
Christianity.  They  are  a  proof  that  we  have  limited 
and  impeded  the  operation  of  the  Spirit  within  us. 
They  teach  us  that  He  will  not  intercede  *  with  groan- 
ings which  cannot  be  uttered  '  unless  we  let  Him  speak 
through  our  voices.  Therefore,  if  we  find  that  in  our 
own  consciousness  there  is  little  to  correspond  to  those 
unuttered  groanings,  we  should  take  the  warning: 
'  Quench  not  the  Spirit.'  '  Grieve  not  the  Holy  Spirit 
of  God  in  whom  ye  were  sealed  unto  the  day  of 
redemption.' 

IV.  The  unuttered  longings  are  sure  to  be  answered. 

He  that  searcheth  the  heart  knows  the  meaning 
of  the  Spirit's  unspoken  prayers;  and  looking  into 
the  depths  of  the  human  spirit  interprets  its  longings, 
discriminating  between  the  mere  human  and  partial 
expression  and  the  divinely-inspired  desire  which  may 
be  unexpressed.  Jif  our  prayers  are  weak,  they  are 
answered  in  the  measure  in  which  they  embody  in 
them,  though  perhaps  mistaken  by  us,  a  divine  longing. 
Apparent  c.isappointment  of  our  petitions  may  be 
real  answe  s  to  our  real  prayer.     It  was  because  Jesus 


T.26]    GIFT  THAT  BRINGS  ALL  GIFTS    191 

loved  Mary  and  Martha  and  Lazarus  that  He  abode 
still  in  the  same  place  where  He  was,  to  let  Lazarus 
die  that  He  might  be  raised  again.  That  was  the  true 
answer  to  the  sisters'  hope  of  His  immediate  coming. 
God's  way  of  giving  to  us  is  to  breathe  within  us  a 
desire,  and  then  to  answer  the  desire  inbreathed.  So, 
longing  is  the  prophecy  of  fulfilment  when  it  is 
longing  according  to  the  will  of  God.  They  who 
'hunger  and  thirst  after  righteousness'  may  ever  be 
sure  that  their  bread  shall  be  given  them,  and  their 
water  will  be  made  sure.  The  true  object  of  our 
desires  is  often  not  clear  to  us,  and  so  we  err  in  trans- 
lating it  into  words.  Let  us  be  thankful  that  we  pray 
to  a  God  who  can  discern  the  prayer  within  the  prayer, 
and  often  gives  the  substance  of  our  petitions  in  the 
very  act  of  refusing  their  form. 


THE  GIFT  THAT  BRINGS  ALL  GIFTS 

'  He  that  spared  not  His  own  Son,  but  delivered  Him  up  for  us  all,  how  shall  He 
not  with  Him  also  freely  give  us  all  things?'— Romans  viii.  32. 

We  have  here  an  allusion  to,  if  not  a  distinct  quota- 
tion from,  the  narrative  in  Genesis,  of  Abraham's 
offering  up  of  Isaac.  The  same  word  which  is  em- 
ployed in  the  Septuagint  version  of  the  Old  Testament, 
to  translate  the  Hebrew  word  rendered  in  our  Bible  as 
•withheld,'  is  employed  here  by  the  Apostle.  And 
there  is  evidently  floating  before  his  mind  the  thought 
that,  in  some  profound  and  real  sense,  there  is  an 
analogy  between  that  wondrous  and  faithful  act  of 
giving  up  and  the  transcendent  and  stupendous  gift  to 
the  world,  from  God,  of  His  Son. 
If  we  take  that  point  of  view,  the  language  of  my 


192        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.viii. 

text  rises  into  singular  force,  and  suggests  many  very 
deep  thoughts,  about  which,  perhaps,  silence  is  best. 
But  led  by  that  analogy,  let  us  deal  with  these  words. 

I.  Consider  this  mysterious  act  of  divine  surrender. 

The  analogy  seems  to  suggest  to  us,  strange  as  it  may 
be,  and  remote  from  the  cold  and  abstract  ideas  of  the 
divine  nature  which  it  is  thought  to  be  philosophical 
to  cherish,  that  something  corresponding  to  the  pain 
and  loss  that  shadowed  the  patriarch's  heart  flitted 
across  the  divine  mind  when  the  Father  sent  the  Son 
to  be  the  Saviour  of  the  world.  Not  merely  to  give, 
but  to  give  up,  is  the  highest  crown  and  glory  of  love, 
as  we  know  it.  And  who  shall  venture  to  say  that  we 
so  fully  apprehend  the  divine  nature  as  to  be  war- 
ranted in  declaring  that  some  analogy  to  that  is 
impossible  for  Him?  Our  language  is,  'I  will  not 
offer  unto  God  that  which  doth  cost  me  nothing.'  Let 
us  bow  in  silence  before  the  dim  intimation  that  seems 
to  flicker  out  of  the  words  of  my  text,  that  so  He  says 
to  us,  '  I  will  not  offer  unto  you  that  which  doth  cost 
Me  nothing.'  *  He  spared  not  His  own  Son ' ;  withheld 
Him  not  from  us. 

But  passing  from  that  which,  I  dare  say,  many  of  you 
may  suppose  to  be  fanciful  and  unwarranted,  let  us 
come  upon  the  surer  ground  of  the  other  words  of  my 
text.  And  notice  how  the  reality  of  the  surrender  is 
emphasised  by  the  closeness  of  the  bond  which,  in  the 
mysterious  eternity,  knits  together  the  Father  and  the 
Son.  As  with  Abraham,  so  in  this  lofty  example,  of 
which  Abraham  and  Isaac  were  but  as  dim,  wavering 
reflections  in  water,  the  Son  is  His  own  Son.  It  seems 
to  me  impossible,  upon  any  fair  interpretation  of  the 
words  before  us,  to  refrain  from  giving  to  that  epithet 
here  its  very  highest  and  most  mysterious  sense.    It 


V.  32]    GIFT  THAT  BRINGS  ALL  GIFTS    193 

cannot  be  any  mere  equivalent  for  Messiah,  it  cannot 
merely  mean  a  man  who  was  like  God  in  purity  of 
nature  and  in  closeness  of  communion.  For  the  force 
of  the  analogy  and  the  emphasis  of  that  word  which  is 
even  more  emphatic  in  the  Greek  than  in  the  English 
'  His  oivn  Son,'  point  to  a  community  of  nature,  to  a 
uniqueness  and  singleness  of  relation,  to. a  closeness  of 
intimacy,  to  which  no  other  is  a  parallel.  And  so  we 
have  to  estimate  the  measure  of  the  surrender  by  the 
tenderness  and  awf ulness  of  the  bond.  '  Having  one 
Son,  His  well-beloved,  He  sent  Him.' 

Notice,  again,  how  the  greatness  of  the  surrender  is 
made  more  emphatic  by  the  contemplation  of  it  in 
its  double  negative  and  positive  aspect,  in  the  two 
successive  clauses.  'He  spared  not  His  Son,  but  de- 
livered Him  up,'  an  absolute,  positive  giving  of  Him 
over  to  the  humiliation  of  the  life  and  to  the  mystery 
of  the  death. 

And  notice  how  the  tenderness  and  the  beneficence 
that  were  the  sole  motive  of  the  surrender  are  lifted 
into  light  in  the  last  words, '  for  us  all.'  The  single,  sole 
reason  that  bowed,  if  I  may  so  say,  the  divine  pur- 
pose, and  determined  the  mysterious  act,  was  a  pure 
desire  for  our  blessing.  No  definition  is  given  as  to  the 
manner  in  which  that  surrender  wrought  for  our  good. 
The  Apostle  does  not  need  to  dwell  upon  that.  His 
purpose  is  to  emphasise  the  entire  unselfishness,  the 
utter  simplicity  of  the  motive  which  moved  the  divine 
will.  One  great  throb  of  love  to  the  whole  of  humanity 
led  to  that  transcendent  surrender,  before  which  we 
can  only  bow  and  say,  *  Thanks  be  unto  God  for  His 
unspeakable  gift.' 

And  now,  notice  how  this  mysterious  act  is  grasped 
by  the  Apostle  here  as  what  I  may  call  the  illuminat- 

N 


194        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.viii. 

ing  fact  as  to  the  whole  divine  nature.  From  it,  and 
from  it  alone,  there  falls  a  blaze  of  light  on  the  deepest 
things  in  God.  We  are  accustomed  to  speak  of  Christ's 
perfect  life  of  unselfishness,  and  His  death  of  pure 
beneficence,  as  being  the  great  manifestation  to  us  all 
that  in  His  heart  there  is  an  infinite  fountain  of  love  to 
us.  We  are,  further,  accustomed  to  speak  of  Christ's 
mission  and  death  as  being  the  revelation  to  us  of  the 
love  of  God  as  well  as  of  the  Man  Christ  Jesus,  because 
we  believe  that  '  God  was  in  Christ  reconciling  the 
world,'  and  that  He  has  so  manifested  and  revealed  the 
very  nature  of  divinity  to  us,  in  His  life  and  in  His 
person,  that,  as  He  Himself  says,  '  He  that  hath  seen 
Me  hath  seen  the  Father.'  And  every  conclusion  that 
we  draw  as  to  the  love  of  Christ  is,  ipso  facto,  a  con- 
clusion as  to  the  love  of  God.  But  my  text  looks  at 
the  matter  from  rather  a  different  point  of  view,  and 
bids  us  see,  in  Christ's  mission  and  sacrifice,  the 
great  demonstration  of  the  love  of  God,  not  only 
because  '  God  was  in  Christ,'  but  because  the  Father's 
will,  conceived  of  as  distinct  from,  and  yet  harmonious 
with,  the  will  of  the  Son,  gives  Him  up  for  us.  And 
we  have  to  say,  not  only  that  we  see  the  love  of  God 
in  the  love  of  Christ,  but '  God  so  loved  the  world  that 
He  sent  His  only  begotten  Son '  that  we  might  have 
life  through  Him. 

These  various  phases  of  the  love  of  Christ  as 
manifesting  the  divine  love,  may  not  be  capable  of 
perfect  harmonising  in  our  thoughts,  but  they  do 
blend  into  one,  and  by  reason  of  them  all,  '  God  com- 
mendeth  His  love  toward  us  in  that  while  we  were  yet 
sinners,  Christ  died  for  us.'  We  have  to  think  not  only 
of  Abraham  who  gave  up,  but  of  the  unresisting, 
innocent  Isaac,  bearing  on  his  shoulders  the  wood  for 


V.32]    GIFT  THAT  BRINGS  ALL  GIFTS    195 

the  burnt  offering,  as  the  Christ  bore  the  Cross  on  His, 
and  suffering  himself  to  be  bound  upon  the  pile,  not 
only  by  the  cords  that  tied  his  limbs,  but  by  the  cords 
of  obedience  and  submission,  and  in  both  we  have  to 
bow  before  the  Apocalypse  of  divine  love. 

II.  So,  secondly,  look  at  the  power  of  this  divine 
surrender  to  bring  with  it  all  other  gifts. 

•  How  shall  He  not  with  Him  also  freely  give  us  all 
things?'  The  Apostle's  triumphant  question  requires 
for  its  affirmative  answer  only  the  belief  in  the  un- 
changeableness  of  the  Divine  heart,  and  the  uniformity 
of  the  Divine  purpose.  And  if  these  be  recognised, 
their  conclusion  inevitably  follows.  'With  Him  He 
will  freely  give  us  all  things.' 

It  is  so,  because  the  greater  gift  implies  the  less.  We 
do  not  expect  that  a  man  who  hands  over  a  million  of 
pounds  to  another,  to  help  him,  will  stick  at  a  farthing 
afterwards.  If  you  give  a  diamond  you  may  well  give 
a  box  to  keep  it  in.  In  God's  gift  the  lesser  will  follow 
the  lead  of  the  greater ;  and  whatsoever  a  man  can 
want,  it  is  a  smaller  thing  for  Him  to  bestow,  than  was 
the  gift  of  His  Son. 

There  is  a  beautiful  contrast  between  the  manners  of 
giving  the  two  sets  of  gifts  implied  in  words  of  the 
original,  perhaps  scarcely  capable  of  being  reproduced 
in  any  translation.  The  expression  that  is  rendered 
•freely  give,'  implies  that  there  is  a  grace  and  a 
pleasantness  in  the  act  of  bestowal.  God  gave  in 
Christ,  what  we  may  reverently  say  it  was  something 
like  pain  to  give.  Will  He  not  give  the  lesser,  what- 
ever they  may  be,  which  it  is  the  joy  of  His  heart  to 
communicate  ?    The  greater  implies  the  less. 

Farther,  this  one  great  gift  draws  all  other  gifts  after 
it,  because  the  purpose  of  the  greater  gift  cannot  be 


196         EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.viii. 

attained  without  the  bestowment  of  the  lesser.  He 
does  not  begin  to  build  being  unable  to  finish ;  He  does 
not  miscalculate  His  resources,  nor  stultify  Himself  by 
commencing  upon  a  large  scale,  and  having  to  stop 
short  before  the  purpose  with  which  He  began  is 
accomplished.  Men  build  great  palaces,  and  are  bank- 
rupt before  the  roof  is  put  on.  God  lays  His  plans 
with  the  knowledge  of  His  powers,  and  having  first  of 
all  bestowed  this  large  gift,  is  not  going  to  have  it 
bestowed  in  vain  for  want  of  some  smaller  ones  to 
follow  it  up.  Christ  puts  the  same  argument  to  us, 
beginning  only  at  the  other  end  of  the  process.  Paul 
says,  *  God  has  laid  the  foundation  in  Christ.'  Do  you 
think  He  will  stop  before  the  headstone  is  put  on? 
Christ  said,  *  It  is  your  Father's  good  pleasure  to  give 
you  the  Kingdom.'  Do  you  think  He  will  not  give  you 
bread  and  water  on  the  road  to  it?  Will  He  send 
out  His  soldiers  half-equipped ;  will  it  be  found  when 
they  are  on  their  march  that  they  have  been  started 
with  a  defective  commissariat,  and  with  insufficient 
trenching  tools  ?  Shall  the  children  of  the  King,  on 
the  road  to  their  thrones,  be  left  to  scramble  along 
anyhow,  in  want  of  what  they  need  to  get  there? 
That  is  not  God's  way  of  doing.  He  that  hath  begun 
a  good  work  will  also  perfect  the  same,  and  when  He 
gave  to  you  and  me  His  Son,  He  bound  Himself  to  give 
us  every  subsidiary  and  secondary  blessing  which  was 
needed  to  make  that  Son's  work  complete  in  each 
of  us. 

Again,  this  great  blessing  draws  after  it,  by  neces- 
sary consequence,  all  other  lesser  and  secondary  gifts, 
inasmuch  as,  in  every  real  sense,  everything  is  in- 
cluded and  possessed  in  the  Christ  when  we  receive 
Him.    '  With  Him,'  says  Paul,  as  if  that  gift  once  laid 


V.  32]    GIFT  THAT  BRINGS  ALL  GIFTS    197 

in  a  man's  heart  actually  enclosed  within  it,  and  had 
for  its  indispensable  accompaniment  the  possession  of 
every  smaller  thing  that  a  man  can  need,  Jesus  Christ 
is,  as  it  were,  a  great  Cornucopia,  a  horn  of  abundance, 
out  of  which  will  pour,  with  magic  affluence,  all 
manner  of  supplies  according  as  we  require.  This 
fountain  flows  with  milk,  wine,  and  water,  as  men 
need.  Everything  is  given  us  when  Christ  is  given  to 
us,  because  Christ  is  the  Heir  of  all  things,  and  we 
possess  all  things  in  Him ;  as  some  poor  village  maiden 
married  to  a  prince  in  disguise,  who,  on  the  morrow  of 
her  wedding  finds  tl  at  she  is  lady  of  broad  lands,  and 
mistress  of  a  kingdom.  '  He  that  spared  not  His  own 
Son,'  not  only  'with  Him  will  give,'  but  in  Him  has 
'  given  us  all  things.' 

And  so,  brethren,  just  as  that  great  gift  is  the 
illuminating  fact  in  reference  to  the  divine  heart,  so  is 
it  the  interpreting  fact  in  reference  to  the  divine  deal- 
ings. Only  when  we  keep  firm  hold  of  Christ  as  the 
gift  of  God,  and  the  Explainer  of  all  that  God  does, 
can  we  face  the  darkness,  the  perplexities,  the  tortur- 
ing questions  that  from  the  beginning  have  harassed 
men's  minds  as  they  looked  upon  the  mysteries  of 
human  misery.  If  we  recognise  that  God  has  given  us 
His  Son,  then  all  things  become,  if  not  plain,  at  least 
lighted  with  some  gleam  from  that  great  gift ;  and  we 
feel  that  the  surrender  of  Christ  is  the  constraining 
fact  which  shapes  after  its  own  likeness,  and  for  its 
own  purpose,  all  the  rest  of  God's  dealings  with  men. 
That  gift  makes  anything  believable,  reasonable, 
possible,  rather  than  that  He  should  spare  not  His 
own  Son,  and  then  should  counterwork  His  own  act  by 
sending  the  world  anything  but  good. 

III.  And  now,  lastly,  take  one  or  two  practical  issues 


198        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.viii. 

from  these  thoughts,  in  reference  to  our  own  belief  and 
conduct. 

First,  I  would  say.  Let  us  correct  our  estimates  of  the 
relative  importance  of  the  two  sets  of  gifts.  On  the 
one  side  stands  the  solitary  Christ ;  on  the  other  side 
are  massed  all  delights  of  sense,  all  blessings  of  time, 
all  the  things  that  the  vulgar  estimation  of  men  unani- 
mously recognises  to  be  good.  These  are  only  make- 
weights. They  are  all  lumped  together  into  an  '  also.' 
They  are  but  the  golden  dust  that  may  be  filed  off  from 
the  great  ingot  and  solid  block.  They  are  but  the  out- 
ward tokens  of  His  far  deeper  and  true  preciousness. 
They  are  secondary ;  He  is  the  primary.  What  an 
inversion  of  our  notions  of  good  !  Do  you  degrade  all 
the  world's  wealth,  pleasantness,  ease,  prosperity,  into 
an  '  also  ? '  Are  you  content  to  put  it  in  the  secondary 
place,  as  a  result,  if  it  please  Him,  of  Christ  ?  Do  you 
live  as  if  you  did?  Which  do  you  hunger  for  most? 
Which  do  you  labour  for  hardest  ?  '  Seek  ye  first  the 
Kingdom '  and  the  King,  and  all '  these  things  shall  be 
added  unto  you.' 

Let  these  thoughts  teach  us  that  sorrow  too  is  one  of 
the  gifts  of  the  Christ.  The  words  of  my  text,  at  first 
sight,  might  seem  to  be  simply  a  promise  of  abundant 
earthly  good.  But  look  what  lies  close  beside  them, 
and  is  even  part  of  the  same  triumphant  burst.  '  Shall 
tribulation,  or  distress,  or  persecution,  or  famine,  or 
nakedness,  or  peril,  or  sword  ? '  These  are  some  of  the 
•  all  things '  which  Paul  expected  that  God  would  give 
him  and  his  brethren.  And  looking  upon  all,  he  says, 
'  They  all  work  together  for  good ' ;  and  in  them  all  we 
may  be  more  than  conquerors.  It  would  be  a  poor, 
shabby  issue  of  such  a  great  gift  as  that  of  which  we 
have  been  speaking,  if  it  were  only  to  be  followed  by 


V.  32]    GIFT  THAT  BRINGS  ALL  GIFTS    199 

the  sweetnesses  and  prosperity  and  wealth  of  this 
world.  But  here  is  the  point  that  we  have  to  keep 
hold  of — inasmuch  as  He  gives  us  all  things,  let  us  take 
all  the  things  that  come  to  us  as  being  as  distinctly  the 
gifts  of  His  love,  as  is  the  gift  of  Christ  Himself.  A 
wise  physician,  to  an  ignorant  onlooker,  might  seem  to 
be  acting  in  contradictory  fashions  when  in  the  one 
moment  he  slashes  into  a  limb,  with  a  sharp,  gleaming 
knife,  and  in  the  next  sedulously  binds  the  wounds, 
and  closes  the  arteries,  but  the  purpose  of  both  acts  is 
one. 

The  diurnal  revolution  of  the  earth  brings  the  joyful 
sunrise  and  the  pathetic  sunset.  The  same  annual 
revolution  whirls  us  through  the  balmy  summer  days 
and  the  biting  winter  ones.  God's  purpose  is  one.  His 
methods  vary.  The  road  goes  straight  to  its  goal ;  but 
it  sometimes  runs  in  tunnels  dank  and  dark  and 
stifling,  and  sometimes  by  sunny  glades  and  through 
green  pastures.  God's  purpose  is  always  love,  brother. 
His  withdrawals  are  gifts,  and  sorrow  is  not  the  least 
of  the  benefits  which  come  to  us  through  the  Man  of 
Sorrows. 

So  again,  let  these  thoughts  teach  us  to  live  by  a  very 
quiet  and  peaceful  faith.  We  find  it  a  great  deal 
easier  to  trust  God  for  Heaven  than  for  earth — for  the 
distant  blessings  than  for  the  near  ones.  Many  a  man 
will  venture  his  soul  into  God's  hands,  who  would 
hesitate  to  venture  to-morrow's  food  there.  Why  ?  Is 
it  not  because  we  do  not  really  trust  Him  for  the 
greater  that  we  find  it  so  hard  to  trust  Him  for  the 
less  ?  Is  it  not  because  we  want  the  less  more  really 
than  we  want  the  greater,  that  we  can  put  ourselves 
off  with  faith  for  the  one,  and  want  something  more 
solid  to  grasp  for  the  other  ?    Live  in  the  calm  con- 


,/'' 


200        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.viii. 

fidence  that  God  gives  all  things;  and  gives  us  for 
to-morrow  as  for  eternity ;  for  earth  as  for  heaven. 

And,  last  of  all,  make  you  quite  sure  that  you  have 
taken  the  great  gift  of  God.  He  gives  it  to  all  the 
world,  but  they  only  have  it  who  accept  it  by  faith" 
Have  you,  my  brother  ?  I  look  out  upon  the  lives  of  the 
mass  of  professing  Christians ;  and  this  question  weighs 
on  my  heart,  judging  by  conduct — have  they  really  got 
Christ  for  their  own  ?  '  Wherefore  do  ye  spend  your 
money  for  that  which  is  not  bread,  and  your  labour 
for  that  which  satisfieth  not  ? '  Look  how  you  are  all 
fighting  and  scrambling,  and  sweating  and  fretting,  to 
get  hold  of  the  goods  of  this  present  life,  and  here  is  a 
gift  gleaming  before  you  all  the  while  that  you  will 
not  condescend  to  take.  Like  a  man  standing  in  a 
market-place  offering  sovereigns  for  nothing,  which 
nobody  accepts  because  they  think  the  offer  is  too 
good  to  be  true,  so  God  complains  and  wails :  I  have 
stretched  out  My  hands  all  the  day,  laden  with  gifts, 
and  no  man  regarded. 

*  It  is  only  heaven  may  be  had  for  the  asking ; 
It  is  only  God  that  is  given  away.' 

He  gives  His  Son.  Take  Him  by  humble  faith  in 
His  sacrifice  and  Spirit ;  take  Him,  and  with  Him  He 
freely  gives  you  all  things. 


MORE  THAN  CONQUERORS 

'  Nay,  in  all  these  things  we  are  more  than  conquerors  through  Him  that  loved 
us.'— EOMANS  viii.  37. 

In  order  to  understand  and  feel  the  full  force  of  this 
triumphant  saying  of  the  Apostle,  we  must  observe  that 
it  is  a  negative  answer  to   the  preceding  questions, 


V.37]       MORE  THAN  CONQUERORS        201 

•  Who  shall  separate  us  from  the  love  of  Christ  ?  Shall 
tribulation,  or  distress,  or  persecution,  or  famine,  or 
nakedness,  or  peril,  or  sword?'  A  heterogeneous  >c 
mass  the  Apostle  here  brigades  together  as  an  anta- 
gonistic army.  They  are  alike  in  nothing  except  that 
they  are  all  evils.  There  is  no  attempt  at  an  exhaus- 
tive enumeration,  or  at  classification.  He  clashes 
down,  as  it  were,  a  miscellaneous  mass  of  evil  things, 
and  then  triumphs  over  them,  and  all  the  genus  to 
which  they  belong,  as  being  utterly  impotent  to  drag 
men  away  from  Jesus  Christ.  To  ask  the  question  is 
to  answer  it,  but  the  form  of  the  answer  is  worth 
notice.  Instead  of  directly  replying,  '  No !  no  such 
powerless  things  as  these  can  separate  us  from  the 
love  of  Christ,'  he  says,  *  No !  In  all  these  things, 
whilst  weltering  amongst  them,  whilst  ringed  round 
about  by  them,  as  by  encircling  enemies,  '•  we  are  more. 
than  conquerors." '  Thereby,  he  suggests  that  there  is 
something  needing  to  be  done  by  us,  in  order  that  the 
foes  may  not  exercise  their  natural  effect.  And  so, 
taking  the  words  of  my  text  in  connection  with  that 
to  which  they  are  an  answer,  we  have  three  things — 
the  impotent  enemies  of  love  ;  the  abundant  victory  of 
love ;  *  We  are  more  than  conquerors  ' ;  and  the  love 
that  makes  us  victorious.  Let  us  look  then  at  these 
three  things  briefly. 

I.  First  of  all,  the  impotent  enemies  of  love. 

There  is  contempt  in  the  careless  massing  together 
of  the  foes  which  the  Apostle  enumerates.  He  begins 
with  the  widest  word  that  covers  everything — 'afflic- 
tion.' Then  he  specifies  various  forms  of  it — '  distress,' 
straitening,  as  the  word  might  be  rendered,  then  he 
comes  to  evils  inflicted  for  Christ's  sake  by  hostile 
men — 'persecution,'    then  he   names  purely  physical 


202        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.viii. 

evils,  *  hunger '  and  '  nakedness,'  then  he  harks  back 
again  to  man's  antagonism,  '  peril,'  and  '  sword  And 
thus  carelessly,  and  without  an  effort  at  logica?'  order, 
he  throws  together,  as  specimens  of  their  class,  these 
salient  points,  as  it  were,  and  crests  of  the  great  sea, 
whose  billows  threaten  to  roll  over  us ;  and  he  laughs 
at  them  all,  as  impotent  and  nought,  when  compared 
with  the  love  of  Christ,  which  shields  us  from  them  all. 

Now  it  must  be  noticed  that  here,  in  his  triumphant 
question,  the  Apostle  means  not  our  love  to  Christ  but 
His  to  us ;  and  not  even  our  sense  of  that  love,  but  the 
fact  itself.  And  his  question  is  just  this: — Is  there 
any  evil  in  the  world  that  can  make  Christ  stop  loving 
a  man  that  cleaves  to  Him  ?  And,  as  I  said,  to  ask  the 
question  is  to  answer  it.  The  two  things  belong  to 
two  different  regions.  They  have  nothing  in  common. 
The  one  moves  amongst  the  low  levels  of  earth ;  the 
other  dwells  up  amidst  the  abysses  of  eternity,  and  to 
suppose  that  anything  that  assails  and  afflicts  us  here 
has  any  effect  in  making  that  great  heart  cease  to  love 
us  is  to  fancy  that  the  mists  can  quench  the  sunlight, 
is  to  suppose  that  that  which  lies  down  low  in  the 
earth  can  rise  to  poison  and  to  darken  the  heavens. 

There  is  no  need,  in  order  to  rise  to  the  full  height  of 
the  Christian  contempt  for  calamity,  to  deny  any  of  its 
terrible  power.  These  things  can  separate  us  from 
much.  They  can  separate  us  from  joy,  from  hope, 
from  almost  all  that  makes  life  desirable.  They  can 
strip  us  to  the  very  quick,  but  the  quick  they  cannot 
touch.  The  frost  comes  and  kills  the  flowers,  browns 
the  leaves,  cuts  off  the  stems,  binds  the  sweet  music  of 
the  flowing  rivers  in  silent  chains,  casts  mists  and 
darkness  over  the  face  of  the  solitary  grey  world,  but 
it  does  not  touch  the  life  that  is  in  the  root. 


V.  37]       MORE  THAN  CONQUERORS        203 

And  so  all  these  outward  sorrows  that  have  power 
over  the  whole  of  the  outward  life,  and  can  slay  joy 
and  all  but  stifle  hope,  and  can  ban  men  into  irrevoc- 
able darkness  and  unalleviated  solitude,  they  do  not 
touch  in  the  smallest  degree  the  secret  bond  that  binds 
the  heart  to  Jesus,  nor  in  any  measure  affect  the  flow 
of  His  love  to  us.  Therefore  we  may  front  them  and 
smile  at  them  and  say : 

•  Do  as  thou  wilt,  devouring  time, 
With  this  wide  world,  and  all  its  fading  sweets  * ; 

•  my  flesh  and  my  heart  f aileth,  but  God  is  the  strength 
of  my  heart,  and  my  portion  for  ever.' 

You  need  not  be  very  much  afraid  of  anything  being 
taken  from  you  as  long  as  Christ  is  left  you.  You 
will  not  be  altogether  hopeless  so  long  as  Christ,  who 
is  our  hope,  still  speaks  His  faithful  promises  to  you, 
nor  will  the  world  be  lonely  and  dark  to  them  who  feel 
that  they  are  lapt  in  the  sweet  and  all-pervading  con- 
sciousness of  the  changeless  love  of  the  heart  of  Christ. 
'  Shall  tribulation,  or  distress,  or  persecution  ? ' — in  any 
of  these  things,  '  we  are  more  than  conquerors  through 
Him  that  loved  us.'  Brethren,  that  is  the  Christian 
way  of  looking  at  all  externals,  not  only  at  the  dark 
and  the  sorrowful,  but  at  the  bright  and  the  gladsome. 
If  the  withdrawal  of  external  blessings  does  not  touch 
the  central  sanctities  and  sweetness  of  a  life  in  com- 
munion with  Jesus,  the  bestowal  of  external  blessed- 
ness does  not  much  brighten  or  gladden  it.  We  can 
face  the  withdrawal  of  them  all,  we  need  not  covet 
the  possession  of  them  all,  for  we  have  all  in  Christ ; 
and  the  world  without  His  love  contributes  less  to 
our  blessedness  and  our  peace  than  the  absence  of  all 
its  joys  with  His  love  does.    So  let  us  feel  that  earth, 


204        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch\vih. 

in  its  givings  and  in  its  withholdings,  is  equds^^ly 
impotent  to  touch  the  one  thing  that  we  need,  tiie 
conscious  possession  of  the  love  of  Christ. 

All  these  foes,  as  I  have  said,  have  no  power  over 
the  fact  of  Christ's  love  to  us,  but  they  have  power, 
and  a  very  terrible  power,  over  our  consciousness  of 
that  love ;  and  we  may  so  kick  against  the  pricks  as  to 
lose,  in  the  pain  of  our  sorrows,  the  assurance  of  His 
presence,  or  be  so  fascinated  by  the  false  and  vulgar 
sweetnesses  and  promises  of  the  world  as,  in  the 
eagerness  of  our  chase  after  them,  to  lose  our  sense  of 
the  all-sufficing  certitude  of  His  love.  Tribulation  does 
not  strip  us  of  His  love,  but  tribulation  may  so  darken 
our  perceptions  that  we  cannot  see  the  sun.  Joys  need 
not  rob  us  of  His  heart,  but  joys  may  so  fill  ours,  as 
that  there  shall  be  no  longing  for  His  presence  within 
us.  Therefore  let  us  not  exaggerate  the  impotence  of 
these  foes,  but  feel  that  there  are  real  dangers,  as  in 
the  sorrows  so  in  the  blessings  of  our  outward  life,  and 
that  the  evil  to  be  dreaded  is  that  outward  things, 
whether  in  their  bright  or  in  their  dark  aspects,  may 
come  between  us  and  the  home  of  our  hearts,  the  love 
of  the  loving  Christ. 

II.  So  then,  note  next,  the  abundant  victory  of  love. 

Mark  how  the  Apostle,  in  his  lofty  and  enthusiastic 
way,  is  not  content  here  with  simply  saying  that  ho 
and  his  fellows  conquer.  It  would  be  a  poor  thing,  he 
seems  to  think,  if  the  balance  barely  inclined  to  our 
side,  if  the  victory  were  but  just  won  by  a  hair's 
breadth  and  triumph  were  snatched,  as  it  were,  out  of 
the  very  jaws  of  defeat.  There  must  be  something 
more  than  that  to  correspond  to  the  power  of  the 
victorious  Christ  that  is  in  us.  And  so,  he  says,  we 
very  abundantly  conquer ;  we  not  only  hinder  these 


V.37]       MORE  THAN  CONQUERORS        205 

things  which  he  has  been  enumerating  from  doing  that 
which  it  is  their  aim  apparently  to  do,  but  we  actually 
convert  them  into  helpers  or  allies.  The  ^more  than 
conquerors'  seems  to  mean,  if  there  is  any  definite 
idea  to  be  attached  to  it,  the  conversion  of  tho  enemy 
conquered  into  a  friend  and  a  helper.  The  American  . 
Indians  had  a  superstition  that  every  foe  tomaha\,-  d 
sent  fresh  strength  into  the  warrior's  arm.  And 
all  afflictions  and  trials  rightly  borne,  and  therefore 
overcome,  make  a  man  stronger,  and  bring  him  nearer 
to  Jesus  Christ. 

Note  then,  further,  that  not  only  is  this  victory  more 
than  bare  victory,  being  the  conversion  of  the  enemy 
into  allies,  but  that  it  is  a  victory  which  is  won  even 
whilst  we  are  in  the  midst  of  the  strife.  It  is  not  that 
we  shall  be  conquerors  in  some  far-off  heaven,  when 
the  noise  of  battle  has  ceased  and  they  hang  the 
trumpet  in  the  hall,  but  it  is  here  now,  in  the  hand- 
to-hand  and  foot-to-foot  death-grapple  that  we  do 
overcome.  No  ultimate  victory,  in  some  far-off  and 
blessed  heaven,  will  be  ours  unless  moment  by  moment, 
here,  to-day,  *  we  are  more  than  conquerors  through 
Him  that  loved  us.' 

So,  then,  about  this  abundant  victory  there  are  these 
things  to  say : — You  conquer  the  world  only,  then,  when 
you  make  it  contribute  to  your  conscious  possession  of 
the  love  of  Christ.  That  is  the  real  victory,  the  only 
real  victory  in  life.  Men  talk  about  overcoming  here 
on  earth,  and  they  mean  thereby  the  accomplishment 
of  their  designs.  A  man  has  '  victory,'  as  it  is  phrased, 
in  the  world's  strife,  when  he  secures  for  himself  the 
world's  goods  at  which  he  has  aimed,  but  that  is  not 
the  Christian  idea  of  the  conquest  of  calamity.  Every- 
thing that  makes  me    feel  more    thrillingly  in    my 


206        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.viii. 

inmost  heart  the  verity  and  the  sweetness  of  the  love 
of  Jesus  Christ  ay  my  very  own,  is  conquered  by  me 
and  compelled  to  subserve  my  highest  good,  and 
everything  ';vhich  slips  a  film  between  me  and  Him, 
which  9x>scures  the  light  of  His  face  to  me,  which 
make^/  nie  less  desirous  of,  and  less  sure  of,  and  less 
hii^r'^y  in,  and  less  satisfied  with,  His  love,  is  an  enemy 
lop-tt  has  conquered  me.  And  all  these  evils  as  the 
v/orld  calls  them,  and  as  our  bleeding  hearts  have 
often  felt  them  to  be,  are  converted  into  allies  and 
friends  when  they  drive  us  to  Christ,  and  keep  us  close 
to  Him,  in  the  conscious  possession  of  His  sweet  and 
changeless  love.  That  is  the  victory,  and  the  only  vic- 
tory. Has  the  world  helped  me  to  lay  hold  of  Christ  ? 
Then  I  have  conquered  it.  Has  the  world  loosened 
my  grasp  upon  Him  ?    Then  it  has  conquered  me. 

Note  then,  further,  that  this  abundant  victory  de- 
pends on  how  we  deal  with  the  changes  of  our  outward 
lives,  our  sorrows  or  our  joys.  There  is  nothing,  per 
se,  salutary  in  affliction,  there  is  nothing,  per  se, 
antagonistic  to  Christian  faith  in  it  either.  No  man  is 
made  better  by  his  sorrows,  no  man  need  be  made 
worse  by  them.  That  depends  upon  how  we  take  the 
things  which  come  storming  against  us.  The  set  of 
your  sails,  and  the  firmness  of  your  grasp  upon  the 
tiller,  determine  whether  the  wind  shall  carry  you  to 
the  haven  or  shall  blow  you  out,  a  wandering  waif, 
upon  a  shoreless  and  melancholy  sea.  There  are  some 
of  you  that  have  been  blown  away  from  your  moorings 
by  sorrow.  There  are  some  professing  Christians  who 
have  been  hindered  in  their  work,  and  had  their  peace 
and  their  faith  shattered  all  but  irrevocably,  because 
they  have  not  accepted,  in  the  spirit  in  which  they 
were  sent,  the  trials  that  have  come  for  their  good. 


V.37]       MORE  Tl.  „     _^i\QUERORS        207 

The  worst  of  all  afflictions  is  a  wasted  affliction,  and 
they  are  all  wasted  unless  they  teach  us  more  of  the 
reality  and  the  blessedness  of  the  love  of  Jesus  Christ. 

III.  Lastly,  notice  the  love  which  makes  us  con- 
querors. 

The  Apostle,  with  a  wonderful  instinctive  sense  of 
fitness,  names  Christ  here  by  a  name  congruous  to  the 
thoughts  which  occupy  his  mind,  when  he  speaks  of 
Him  that  loved  us.  His  question  has  been.  Can  any- 
thing separate  us  from  the  love  of  Christ?  And  his 
answer  is.  So  far  from  that  being  the  case,  that  very 
love,  by  occasion  of  sorrows  and  afflictions,  tightens  its 
grasp  upon  us,  and,  by  the  communication  of  itself  to 
us,  makes  us  more  than  conquerors.  This  great  love 
of  Jesus  Christ,  from  which  nothing  can  separate  us, 
will  use  the  very  things  that  seem  to  threaten  our 
separation  as  a  means  of  coming  nearer  to  us  in  its 
depth  and  in  its  preciousness. 

The  Apostle  says  *  Him  that  loved  us,'  and  the  words 
in  the  original  distinctly  point  to  some  one  fact  as 
being  the  great  instance  of  love.  That  is  to  say  they 
point  to  His  death.  And  so  we  may  say  Christ's  love 
helps  us  to  conquer  because  in  His  death  He  interprets 
for  us  all  possible  sorrows.  If  it  be  true  that  love  to 
each  of  us  nailed  Him  there,  then  nothing  that  can 
come  to  us  but  must  be  a  love-token,  and  a  fruit  of 
that  same  love.  The  Cross  is  the  key  to  all  tribulation, 
and  shows  it  to  be  a  token  and  an  instrument  of  an 
unchanging  love. 

Further,  that  great  love  of  Christ  helps  us  to 
conquer,  because  in  His  sufferings  and  death  He 
becomes  the  Companion  of  all  the  weary.  The  rough, 
dark,  lonely  road  changes  its  look  when  we  see  His 
footprints  there,  not  without  specks  of  blood  in  them, 


208        EPISTLE  TO  i±iiL  ROMANS  [ch.viti. 

where  the  thorns  tore  His  feet.  We  conquer  our 
afflictions  if  we  recognise  that  *  in  all  our  afflictions  He 
was  afflicted,'  and  that  Himself  has  drunk  to  its  bitterest 
dregs  the  cup  which  He  commends  to  our  lips.  He  has 
left  a  kiss  upon  its  margin,  and  we  need  not  shrink 
when  He  holds  it  out  to  us  and  says  'Drink  ye 
all  of  it.'  That  one  thought  of  the  companionship 
of  the  Christ  in  our  sorrows  makes  us  more  than 
conquerors. 

And  lastly,  this  dying  Lover  of  our  souls  communi- 
cates to  us  all,  if  we  will,  the  strength  whereby  we 
may  coerce  all  outward  things  into  being  helps  to  the 
fuller  participation  of  His  perfect  love.  Our  sorrows 
and  all  the  other  distracting  externals  do  seek  to  drag 
us  away  from  Him.  Is  all  that  happens  in  counter- 
action to  that  pull  of  the  world,  that  we  tighten  our 
grasp  upon  Him,  and  will  not  let  Him  go ;  as  some 
poor  wretch  might  the  horns  of  the  altar  that  did  not 
respond  to  his  grasp  ?  Nay !  what  we  lay  hold  of  is  no 
dead  thing,  but  a  living  hand,  and  it  grasps  us  more 
tightly  than  we  can  ever  grasp  it.  So  because  He 
holds  us,  and  not  because  we  hold  Him,  we  shall  not 
be  dragged  away,  by  anything  outside  of  our  own 
weak  and  wavering  souls,  and  all  these  embattled 
foes  may  come  against  us,  they  may  shear  off  every- 
thing else,  they  cannot  sever  Christ  from  us  unless  we 
ourselves  throw  Him  away.  'In  this  thou  shalt 
conquer.'  '  They  overcame  by  the  blood  of  the  Lamb, 
and  by  the  word  of  His  testimony.' 


LOVE'S  TRIUMPH 

'  Neither  death,  nor  life,  nor  angels,  nor  principalities,  nor  powers,  nor  things 
present,  nor  things  to  come,  nor  height,  nor  depth,  nor  any  other  creature,  shall  be 
able  to  separate  us  from  the  love  of  God.'— Romans  viii.  38, 39. 

These  rapturous  words  are  the  climax  of  the  Apostle's 
long  demonstration  that  the  Gospel  is  the  revelation 
of  '  the  righteousness  of  God  from  faith  to  faith,'  and 
is  thereby  '  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation.'  What  a 
contrast  there  is  between  the  beginning  and  the  end 
of  his  argument !  It  started  with  sombre,  sad  words 
about  man's  sinfulness  and  aversion  from  the  know- 
ledge of  God.  It  closes  with  this  sunny  outburst  of 
triumph;  like  some  stream  rising  among  black  and 
barren  cliffs,  or  melancholy  moorlands,  and  foaming 
through  narrow  rifts  in  gloomy  ravines,  it  reaches  at 
last  fertile  lands,  and  flows  calm,  the  sunlight  dancing 
on  its  broad  surface,  till  it  loses  itself  at  last  in  the  un- 
fathomable ocean  of  the  love  of  God. 

We  are  told  that  the  Biblical  view  of  human  nature 
is  too  dark.  Well,  the  important  question  is  not 
whether  it  is  dark,  but  whether  it  is  true.  But,  apart 
from  that,  the  doctrine  of  Scripture  about  man's  moral 
condition  is  not  dark,  if  you  will  take  the  whole  of  it 
together.  Certainly,  a  part  of  it  is  very  dark.  The 
picture,  for  instance,  of  what  men  are,  painted  at  the 
beginning  of  this  Epistle,  is  shadowed  like  a  canvas  of 
Rembrandt's.  The  Bible  is  'Nature's  sternest  painter 
but  her  best.'  But  to  get  the  whole  doctrine  of  Scrip- 
ture on  the  subject,  we  have  to  take  its  confidence  as 
to  what  men  may  become,  as  well  as  its  portrait  of 
what  they  are — and  then  who  will  say  that  the  anthro- 
pology of  Scripture  is  gloomy?  To  me  it  seems  that 
the  unrelieved  blackness  of  the  view  which,  because  it 

o 


210        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [oh.  viii. 

admits  no  fall,  can  imagine  no  rise,  which  sees  in  all 
man's  sins  and  sorrows  no  token  of  the  dominion  of  an 
alien  power,  and  has,  therefore,  no  reason  to  believe 
that  they  can  be  separated  from  humanity,  is  the  true 
•Gospel  of  despair,'  and  that  the  system  which  looks 
steadily  at  all  the  misery  and  all  the  wickedness,  and 
calmly  proposes  to  cast  it  all  out,  is  really  the  only 
doctrine  of  human  nature  which  throws  any  gleam  of 
light  on  the  darkness.  Christianity  begins  indeed  with, 
•There  is  none  that  doeth  good,  no,  not  one,'  but  it 
ends  with  this  victorious  psean  of  our  text. 

And  what  a  majestic  close  it  is  to  the  great  words 
that  have  gone  before,  fitly  crowning  even  their  lofty 
height!  One  might  well  shrink  from  presuming  to 
take  such  words  as  a  text,  with  any  idea  of  exhausting 
or  of  enhancing  them.  My  object  is  very  much  more 
humble.  I  simply  wish  to  bring  out  the  remarkable 
order,  in  which  Paul  here  marshals,  in  his  passionate, 
rhetorical  amplification,  all  the  enemies  that  can  be 
supposed  to  seek  to  wrench  us  away  from  the  love  of 
God ;  and  triumphs  over  them  all.  We  shall  best 
measure  the  fullness  of  the  words  by  simply  taking 
these  clauses  as  they  stand  in  the  text. 

I.  The  love  of  God  is  unaffected  by  the  extremest 
changes  of  our  condition. 

The  Apostle  begins  his  fervid  catalogue  of  vanquished 
foes  by  a  pair  of  opposites  which  might  seem  to  cover 
the  whole  ground — 'neither  death  nor  life.'  What 
more  can  be  said?  Surely,  these  two  include  every- 
thing. From  one  point  of  view  they  do.  But  yet,  as 
we  shall  see,  there  is  more  to  be  said.  And  the  special 
reason  for  beginning  with  this  pair  of  possible  enemies 
is  probably  to  be  found  by  remembering  that  they  are 
a  pair,  that  between  them  they  do  cover  the  whole 


vs.  38, 39]  LOVE'S  TRIUMPH  211 

ground  and  represent  the  extremes  of  change  which 
can  befall  us.  The  one  stands  at  the  one  pole,  the 
other  at  the  other.  If  these  two  stations,  so  far  from 
each  other,  are  equally  near  to  God's  love,  then  no 
intermediate  point  can  be  far  from  it.  If  the  most 
violent  change  which  we  can  experience  does  not  in  the 
least  matter  to  the  grasp  which  the  love  of  God  has  on 
us,  or  to  the  grasp  which  we  may  have  on  it,  then  no 
less  violent  a  change  can  be  of  any  consequence.  It  is 
the  same  thought  in  a  somewhat  modified  form,  as  we 
find  in  another  word  of  Paul's, '  Whether  we  live,  we 
live  unto  the  Lord ;  and  whether  we  die,  we  die  unto 
the  Lord.'  Our  subordination  to  Him  is  the  same, 
and  our  consecration  should  be  the  same,  in  all  varieties 
of  condition,  even  in  that  greatest  of  all  variations. 
His  love  to  us  makes  no  account  of  that  mightiest  of 
changes.    How  should  it  be  affected  by  slighter  ones  ? 

The  distance  of  a  star  is  measured  by  the  apparent 
change  in  its  position,  as  seen  from  different  points  of 
the  earth's  surface  or  orbit.  But  this  great  Light 
stands  steadfast  in  our  heaven,  nor  moves  a  hair's- 
breadth,  nor  pours  a  feebler  ray  on  us,  whether  we 
look  up  to  it  from  the  midsummer  day  of  busy  life, 
or  from  the  midwinter  of  death.  These  opposites  are 
parted  by  a  distance  to  which  the  millions  of  miles  of 
the  world's  path  among  the  stars  are  but  a  point,  and 
yet  the  love  of  God  streams  down  on  them  alike. 

Of  course,  the  confidence  in  immortality  is  implied  in 
this  thought.  Death  does  not,  in  the  slightest  degree, 
affect  the  essential  vitality  of  the  soul ;  so  it  does  not, 
in  the  slightest  degree,  affect  the  outflow  of  God's  love 
to  that  soul.  It  is  a  change  of  condition  and  circum- 
stance, and  no  more.  He  does  not  lose  us  in  the  dust 
of  death.     The  withered  leaves  on  the  pathway  are 


212        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.  viii. 

trampled  into  mud,  and  indistinguishable  to  human 
eyes ;  but  He  sees  them  even  as  when  they  hung  green 
and  sunlit  on  the  mystic  tree  of  life. 

How  beautifully  this  thought  contrasts  with  the 
saddest  aspect  of  the  power  of  death  in  our  human 
experience !  He  is  Death  the  Separator,  who  unclasps 
our  hands  from  the  closest,  dearest  grasp,  and  divides 
asunder  joints  and  marrow,  and  parts  soul  and  body, 
and  withdraws  us  from  all  our  habitude  and  associa- 
tions and  occupations,  and  loosens  every  bond  of  society 
and  concord,  and  hales  us  away  into  a  lonely  land. 
But  there  is  one  bond  which  his  'abhorred  shears' 
cannot  cut.  Their  edge  is  turned  on  it.  One  Hand 
holds  us  in  a  grasp  which  the  fleshless  fingers  of  Death 
in  vain  strive  to  loosen.  The  separator  becomes  the 
uniter ;  he  rends  us  apart  from  the  world  that  He  may 
'  bring  us  to  God.'  The  love  filtered  by  drops  on  us  in 
life  is  poured  upon  us  in  a  flood  in  death ;  '  for  I  am 
persuaded,  that  neither  death  nor  life  shall  be  able  to 
separate  us  from  the  love  of  God.' 

II.  The  love  of  God  is  undiverted  from  us  by  any 
other  order  of  beings. 

•Nor  angels,  nor  principalities,  nor  powers,'  says 
Paul.  Here  we  pass  from  conditions  affecting  ourselves 
to  living  beings  beyond  ourselves.  Now,  it  is  important 
for  understanding  the  precise  thought  of  the  Apostle 
to  observe  that  this  expression,  when  used  without  any 
qualifying  adjective,  seems  uniformly  to  mean  good 
angels,  the  hierarchy  of  blessed  spirits  before  the 
throne.  So  that  there  is  no  reference  to  *  spiritual 
wickedness  in  high  places '  striving  to  draw  men  away 
from  God.  The  supposition  which  the  Apostle  makes 
is,  indeed,  an  impossible  one,  that  these  ministering 
spirits,  who  are  sent  forth  to  minister  to  them  who 


vs.  38, 39]  LOVE'S  TRIUMPH  213 

shall  be  heirs  of  salvation,  should  so  forget  their 
raission  and  contradict  their  nature  as  to  seek  to  bar 
us  out  from  the  love  which  it  is  their  chief  est  joy  to 
bring  to  us.  He  knows  it  to  be  an  impossible  supposi- 
tion, and  its  very  impossibility  gives  energy  to  his 
conclusion,  just  as  when  in  the  same  fashion  he  makes 
the  other  equally  impossible  supposition  about  an 
angel  from  heaven  preaching  another  gospel  than  that 
which  he  had  preached  to  them. 

So  we  may  turn  the  general  thought  of  this  second 
category  of  impotent  efforts  in  two  different  ways,  and 
suggest,  first,  that  it  implies  the  utter  powerlessness  of 
any  third  party  in  regard  to  the  relations  between  our 
souls  and  God. 

We  alone  have  to  do  with  Him  alone.  The  awful 
fact  of  individuality,  that  solemn  mystery  of  our  per- 
sonal being,  has  its  most  blessed  or  its  most  dread 
manifestation  in  our  relation  to  God.  There  no  other 
Being  has  any  power.  Counsel  and  stimulus,  sugges- 
tion or  temptation,  instruction  or  lies,  which  may  tend 
to  lead  us  nearer  to  Him  or  away  from  Him,  they  may 
indeed  give  us  ;  but  after  they  have  done  their  best  or 
their  worst,  all  depends  on  the  personal  act  of  our  own 
innermost  being.  Man  or  angel  can  affect  that,  but 
from  without.  The  old  mystics  called  prayer  '  the 
flight  of  the  lonely  soul  to  the  only  God.'  It  is  the 
name  for  all  religion.  These  two,  God  and  the  soul, 
have  to  •  transact,'  as  our  Puritan  forefathers  used  to 
say,  as  if  there  were  no  other  beings  in  the  universe 
but  only  they  two.  Angels  and  principalities  and 
powers  may  stand  beholding  with  sympathetic  joy ; 
they  may  minister  blessing  and  guardianship  in  many 
ways ;  but  the  decisive  act  of  union  between  God  and 
the  soul  they  can  neither  effect  nor  prevent. 


214        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.  viii. 

And  as  for  them,  so  for  men  around  us  ;  the  limits  of 
their  power  to  harm  us  are  soon  set.  They  may  shut 
us  out  from  human  love  by  calumnies,  and  dig  deep 
gulfs  of  alienation  between  us  and  dear  ones;  they 
may  hurt  and  annoy  us  in  a  thousand  ways  with 
slanderous  tongues,  and  arrows  dipped  in  poisonous 
hatred,  but  one  thing  they  cannot  do.  They  may 
build  a  wall  around  us,  and  imprison  us  from  many  a 
joy  and  many  a  fair  prospect,  but  they  cannot  put  a 
roof  on  it  to  keep  out  the  sweet  influences  from-  above, 
or  hinder  us  from  looking  up  to  the  heavens.  Nobody 
can  come  between  us  and  God  but  ourselves. 

Or,  we  may  turn  this  general  thought  in  another 
direction,  and  say,  These  blessed  spirits  around  the 
throne  do  not  absorb  and  intercept  His  love.  They 
gather  about  its  steps  in  their  'solemn  troops  and 
sweet  societies ' ;  but  close  as  are  their  ranks,  and  in- 
numerable as  is  their  multitude,  they  do  not  prevent 
that  love  from  passing  beyond  them  to  us  on  the  out- 
skirts of  the  crowd.  The  planet  nearest  the  sun  is 
drenched  and  saturated  with  fiery  brightness,  but  the 
rays  from  the  centre  of  life  pass  on  to  each  of  the  sister 
spheres  in  its  turn,  and  travel  away  outwards  to  where 
the  remotest  of  them  all  rolls  in  its  far-oif  orbit,  un- 
known for  millenniums  to  dwellers  closer  to  the  sun, 
but  through  all  the  ages  visited  by  warmth  and  light 
according  to  its  needs.  Like  that  poor,  sickly  woman 
who  could  lay  her  wasted  fingers  on  the  hem  of 
Christ's  garment,  notwithstanding  the  thronging  mul- 
titude, we  can  reach  our  hands  through  all  the  crowd, 
or  rather  He  reaches  His  strong  hand  to  us  and  heals 
and  blesses  us.  All  the  guests  are  fed  full  at  that 
great  table.  One's  gain  is  not  another's  loss.  The 
multitudes  sit  on  the  green  grass,  and  the  last  man  of 


vs.  38, 39]  LOVE  S  TRIUMPH  215 

the  last  fifty  gets  as  mucli  as  the  first.  *  They  did  all  eat, 
and  were  filled ' ;  and  more  remains  than  fed  them  all. 
So  all  beings  are  •  nourished  from  the  King's  country,' 
and  none  jostle  others  out  of  their  share.  This  heal- 
ing fountain  is  not  exhausted  of  its  curative  power  by 
the  early  comers.  'I  will  give  unto  this  last,  even 
as  unto  thee.'  'Nor  angels,  nor  principalities,  nor 
powers,  shall  be  able  to  separate  us  from  the  love 
of  God.' 

III.  The  love  of  God  is  raised  above  the  power  of 
time. 

*Nor   things  present,  nor   things  to    come,'  is    the 

Apostle's  next  class  of  powers  impotent  to  disunite  us 

from  the  love  of  God.    The  rhythmical  arrangement  of 

the  text  deserves  to  be  noticed,  as  bearing  not  only  on 

,  its  music  and  rhetorical  flow,  but  as  affecting  its  force. 

'We  had  first  a  pair  of  opposites,  and  then  a  triplet; 

*  death    and   life :    angels,  principalities,  and  powers.' 

We  have  again  a  pair  of  opposites ;  *  things  present, 

tilings  to  come,'  again  followed  by  a  triplet,  'height 

>r  depth,  nor  any  other  creature.'    The  effect  of  this 
wfi        .   . 
^   JjO  divide  the  whole  into  two,  and  to  throw  the  first 

.  1  second  classes  more  closely  together,  as  also  the 
t^.jd  and  fourth.  Time  and  Space,  these  two  mysterious 
ideas,  which  work  so  fatally  on  all  human  love,  are 
pov7erless  here. 

The  great  revelation  of  God,  on  which  the  whole  of 
Judaism  was  built,  was  that  made  to  Moses  of  the  name 
'  I  Am  that  I  Am.'  And  parallel  to  the  verbal  revela- 
tion was  the  symbol  of  the  Bush,  burning  and  uncon- 
sumed,  which  is  so  often  misunderstood.  It  appears 
wholly  contrary  to  the  usage  of  Scriptural  visions, 
which  are  ever  wont  to  express  in  material  form  the 
same  truth  which  accompanies  them  in  words,  that 


216        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.  viii. 

the  meaning  of  that  vision  should  be,  as  it  is  frequently 
taken  as  being,  the  continuance  of  Israel  unharmed  by 
the  fiery  furnace  of  persecution.  Not  the  continuance 
of  Israel,  but  the  eternity  of  Israel's  God  is  the  teach- 
ing of  that  flaming  wonder.  The  burning  Bush  and 
the  Name  of  the  Lord  proclaimed  the  same  great  truth 
of  self-derived,  self-determined,  timeless,  undecaying 
Being.  And  what  better  symbol  than  the  bush  burn- 
ing, and  yet  not  burning  out,  could  be  found  of  that 
God  in  whose  life  there  is  no  tendency  to  death,  whose 
work  digs  no  pit  of  weariness  into  which  it  falls,  who 
gives  and  is  none  the  poorer,  who  fears  no  exhaustion 
in  His  spending,  no  extinction  in  His  continual  shining  ? 

And  this  eternity  of  Being  is  no  mere  metaphysical 
abstraction.  It  is  eternity  of  love,  for  God  is  love. 
That  great  stream,  the  pouring  out  of  His  own  very 
inmost  Being,  knows  no  pause,  nor  does  the  deep 
fountain  from  which  it  flows  ever  sink  one  hair's- 
breadth  in  its  pure  basin.  / 

We  know  of  earthly  loves  which  cannot  die.  Th^v 
have  entered  so  deeply  into  the  very  fabric  of  tl^  ) 
soul,  that  like  some  cloth  dyed  in  grain,  as  long  as  ii^  > 
threads  hold  together  they  will  retain  the  tint.  ^^^ ) 
have  to  thank  God  for  such  instances  of  love  stron^^  -r 
than  death,  which  make  it  easier  for  us  to  believv.  in 
the  unchanging  duration  of  His.  But  we  know,  too,  of 
love  that  can  change,  and  we  know  that  all  love  must 
part.  Few  of  us  have  reached  middle  life,  who  do  not, 
looking  back,  see  our  track  strewed  with  the  gaunt 
skeletons  of  dead  friendships,  and  dotted  with  ?oaks 
of  weeping,'  waving  green  and  mournful  over  graves, 
and  saddened  by  footprints  striking  away  from  the  line 
of  march,  and  leaving  us  the  more  solitary  for  their 
departure. 


vs.  38, 39]  LOVE'S  TRIUMPH  217 

How  blessed  then  to  know  of  a  love  which  cannot 
change  or  die !  The  past,  the  present,  and  the  future 
are  all  the  same  to  Him,  to  whom  '  a  thousand  years,' 
that  can  corrode  so  much  of  earthly  love,  are  in  their 
power  to  change  '  as  one  day,'  and  '  one  day,'  which  can 
hold  so  few  of  the  expressions  of  our  love,  may  be  '  as  a 
thousand  years '  in  the  multitude  and  richness  of  the 
gifts  which  it  can  be  expanded  to  contain.  The  whole 
of  what  He  has  been  to  any  past.  He  is  to  us  to-day. 
'The  God  of  Jacob  is  our  refuge.'  All  these  old-world 
stories  of  loving  care  and  guidance  may  be  repeated  in 
our  lives. 

So  we  may  bring  the  blessedness  of  all  the  past  into 
the  present,  and  calmly  face  the  misty  future,  sure  that 
it  cannot  rob  us  of  His  love. 

Whatever  may  drop  out  of  our  vainly-clasping  hands, 
it  matters  not,  if  only  our  hearts  are  stayed  on  His 
love,  which  neither  things  present  nor  things  to  come 
can  alter  or  remove.  Looking  on  all  the  flow  of  cease- 
less change,  the  waste  and  fading,  the  alienation  and 
cooling,  the  decrepitude  and  decay  of  earthly  affection, 
we  can  lift  up  with  gladness,  heightened  by  the  con- 
trast, the  triumphant  song  of  the  ancient  Church: 
'  Give  thanks  unto  the  Lord :  for  He  is  good :  because 
His  mercy  endureth  for  ever ! ' 

IV.  The  love  of  God  is  present  everywhere. 

The  Apostle  ends  his  catalogue  with  a  singular  trio 
of  antagonists  ;  '  nor  height,  nor  depth,  nor  any  other 
creature,'  as  if  he  had  got  impatient  of  the  enumera- 
tion of  impotencies,  and  having  named  the  outside 
boundaries  in  space  of  the  created  universe,  flings,  as 
it  were,  with  one  rapid  toss,  into  that  large  room 
the  whole  that  it  can  contain,  and  triumphs  over 
it  all. 


V 


218        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.vhi. 

As  the  former  clause  proclaimed  the  powerlessness  of 
Time,  so  this  proclaims  the  powerlessness  of  that  other 
great  mystery  of  creatural  life  which  we  call  Space. 
Height  or  depth,  it  matters  not.  That  diffusive  love 
diffuses  itself  equally  in  all  directions.  Up  or  down,  it 
is  all  the  same.  The  distance  from  the  centre  is  the 
same  to  Zenith  or  to  Nadir. 

Here,  we  have  the  same  process  applied  to  that  idea 
of  Omnipresence  as  was  applied  in  the  former  clause 
to  the  idea  of  Eternity.  That  thought,  so  hard  to 
grasp  with  vividness,  and  not  altogether  a  glad  one 
to  a  sinful  soul,  is  all  softened  and  glorified,  as  some 
solemn  Alpine  cliff  of  bare  rock  is  when  the  tender 
morning  light  glows  on  it,  when  it  is  thought  of  as  the 
Omnipresence  of  Love.  '  Thou,  God,  seest  me,'  may  be 
a  stern  word,  if  the  God  who  sees  be  but  a  mighty 
Maker  or  a  righteous  Judge.  As  reasonably  might  we 
expect  a  prisoner  in  his  solitary  cell  to  be  glad  when 
he  thinks  that  the  jailer's  eye  is  on  him  from  some 
unseen  spy-hole  in  the  wall,  as  expect  any  thought  of 
God  but  one  to  make  a  man  read  that  grand  one 
hundred  and  thirty-ninth  Psalm  with  joy :  '  If  I  ascend 
into  heaven.  Thou  art  there;  if  I  make  my  bed  in 
Sheol,  behold.  Thou  art  there.'  So  may  a  man  say 
shudderingly  to  himself,  and  tremble  as  he  asks  in 
vain,  '  Whither  shall  I  flee  from  Thy  Presence  ? '  But 
how  different  it  all  is  when  we  can  cast  over  the  marble 
whiteness  of  that  solemn  thought  the  warm  hue  of 
life,  and  change  the  form  of  our  words  into  this  of  our 
text :  *  Nor  height,  nor  depth,  shall  be  able  to  separate 
us  from  the  love  of  God.' 

In  that  great  ocean  of  the  divine  love  we  live  and 
move  and  have  our  being,  floating  in  it  like  some  sea 
flower  which  spreads  its  filmy  beauty  and  waves  its 


vs.  38,39]  LOVE'S  TRIUMPH  219 

long  tresses  in  the  depths  of  mid-ocean.  The  sound  of 
its  waters  is  ever  in  our  ears,  and  above,  beneath, 
around  us,  its  mighty  currents  run  evermore.  We 
need  not  cower  before  the  fixed  gaze  of  some  stony- 
god,  looking  on  us  unmoved  like  those  Egyptian  deities 
that  sit  pitiless  with  idle  hands  on  their  laps,  and  wide- 
open  lidless  eyes  gazing  out  across  the  sands.  We 
need  not  fear  the  Omnipresence  of  Love,  nor  the 
Omniscience  which  knows  us  altogether,  and  loves  us 
even  as  it  knows.  Rather  we  shall  be  glad  that  we  are 
ever  in  His  Presence,  and  desire,  as  the  height  of  all 
felicity  and  the  power  for  all  goodness,  to  walk  all  the 
day  long  in  the  light  of  His  countenance,  till  the  day 
come  when  we  shall  receive  the  crown  of  our  perfect- 
ing in  that  we  shall  be  '  ever  with  the  Lord.' 

The  recognition  of  this  triumphant  sovereignty  of 
love  over  all  these  real  and  supposed  antagonists 
makes  us,  too,  lords  over  them,  and  delivers  us  from 
the  temptations  which  some  of  them  present  us  to 
separate  ourselves  from  the  love  of  God.  They  all 
become  our  servants  and  helpers,  uniting  us  to  that 
love.  So  we  are  set  free  from  the  dread  of  death  and 
from  the  distractions  incident  to  life.  So  we  are 
delivered  from  superstitious  dread  of  an  unseen  world, 
and  from  craven  fear  of  men.  So  we  are  emancipated 
from  absorption  in  the  present  and  from  careful 
thought  for  the  future.  So  we  are  at  home  every- 
where, and  every  corner  of  the  universe  is  to  us  one  of 
the  many  mansions  of  our  Father's  house.  '  All  things 
are  yours,  .  .  .  and  ye  are  Christ's ;  and  Christ  is 
God's.' 

I  do  not  forget  the  closing  words  of  this  great  text. 
I  have  not  ventured  to  include  them  in  our  preseT-.fc 
subject,  because  they  would  have  introduced  anr\aer 


220        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.viii. 

wide  region  of  thought  to  be  laid  down  on  our  already 
too  narrow  canvas. 

But  remember,  I  beseech  you,  that  this  love  of  God  is 
explained  by  our  Apostle  to  be  *in  Christ  Jesus  our 
Lord.'  Love  illimitable,  all -pervasive,  eternal;  yes, 
but  a  love  which  has  a  channel  and  a  course ;  love 
which  has  a  method  and  a  process  by  which  it  pours 
itself  over  the  world.  It  is  not,  as  some  representa- 
tions would  make  it,  a  vague,  nebulous  light  diffused 
through  space  as  in  a  chaotic  half -made  universe,  but 
all  gathered  in  that  great  Light  which  rules  the  day — 
even  in  Him  who  said :  '  I  am  the  Light  of  the  world.' 
In  Christ  the  love  of  God  is  all  centred  and  embodied, 
that  it  may  be  imparted  to  all  sinful  and  hungry 
hearts,  even  as  burning  coals  are  gathered  on  a  hearth 
that  they  may  give  warmth  to  all  that  are  in  the  house. 
'  God  so  loved  the  world ' — not  merely  so  much,  but  in 
such  a  fashion  —  'that' — that  what?  Many  people 
would  leap  at  once  from  the  first  to  the  last  clause  of 
the  verse,  and  regard  eternal  life  for  all  and  sundry  as 
the  only  adequate  expression  of  the  universal  love  of 
God.  Not  so  does  Christ  speak.  Between  that  uni- 
versal love  and  its  ultimate  purpose  and  desire  for 
every  man  He  inserts  two  conditions,  one  on  God's 
part,  one  on  man's.  God's  love  reaches  its  end,  namely, 
the  bestowal  of  eternal  life,  by  means  of  a  divine  act 
and  a  human  response.  •  God  so  loved  the  world,  that 
He  gave  His  only  begotten  Son,  that  whosoever  helieveth 
in  Him  should  not  perish,  but  have  everlasting  life.* 
So  all  the  universal  love  of  God  for  you  and  me  and 
for  all  our  brethren  is  '  in  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord,'  and 
faith  in  Him  unites  us  to  it  by  bonds  which  no  foe  can 
break,  no  shock  of  change  can  snap,  no  time  can  rot, 
no  distance  can  stretch  to  breaking.    'For  I  am  per- 


Y8.38,39]  THE  SACRIFICE  OF  THE  BODY  221 

suaded,  that  neither  death  nor  life,  nor  angels,  noi 
principalities,  nor  powers,  nor  things  present,  nor 
things  to  come,  nor  height,  nor  depth,  nor  any  other 
creature,  shall  be  able  to  separate  us  from  the  love  of 
God,  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord.* 


THE  SACRIFICE  OF  THE  BODY 

'I  beseech  you,  therefore,  brethren,  by  the  mercies  of  God,  that  ye  present  your 
bodies  a  living  sacrifice,  holy,  acceptable  unto  God,  which  is  your  reasonable 
service. '—Romans  xii.  1. 

In  the  former  part  of  this  letter  the  Apostle  has  been 
building  up  a  massive  fabric  of  doctrine,  which  has 
stood  the  waste  of  centuries,  and  the  assaults  of 
enemies,  and  has  been  the  home  of  devout  souls.  He 
now  passes  to  speak  of  practice,  and  he  binds  the  two 
halves  of  his  letter  indissolubly  together  by  that 
significant  '  therefore,'  which  does  not  only  look  back 
to  the  thing  last  said,  but  to  the  whole  of  the  preceding 
portion  of  the  letter.  '  What  God  hath  joined  together 
let  no  man  put  asunder.'  Christian  living  is  inseparably 
connected  with  Christian  believing.  Possibly  the  error 
of  our  forefathers  was  in  cutting  faith  too  much  loose 
from  practice,  and  supposing  that  an  orthodox  creed 
was  sufficient,  though  I  think  the  extent  to  which  they 
did  suppose  that  has  been  very  much  exaggerated. 
The  temptation  of  this  day  is  precisely  the  opposite. 
'Conduct  is  three-fourths  of  life,'  says  one  of  our 
teachers.  Yes.  But  what  about  the  fourth  fourth 
which  underlies  conduct?  Paul's  way  is  the  right 
way.  Lay  broad  and  deep  the  foundations  of  God's 
facts  revealed  to  us,  and  then  build  upon  that  the 
fabric  of  a  noble  life.     This  generation  superficially 


222        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS   [ch.  xii. 

tends  to  cut  practice  loose  from  faith,  and  so  to  look 
for  grapes  from  thorns  and  figs  from  thistles.  Wrong 
thinking  will  not  lead  to  right  doing.  '  I  beseech  you, 
therefore,  brethren,  that  ye  present  your  bodies  a  living 
sacrifice.' 

The  Apostle,  in  beginning  his  practical  exhortations, 
lays  as  the  foundations  of  them  all  two  companion 
precepts:  one,  with  which  we  have  to  deal,  affecting 
mainly  the  outward  life ;  its  twin  sister,  which  follows 
in  the  next  verse,  affecting  mainly  the  inward  life. 
He  who  has  drunk  in  the  spirit  of  Paul's  doctrinal 
teaching  will  present  his  body  a  living  sacrifice,  and  be 
renewed  in  the  spirit  of  his  mind ;  and  thus,  outwardly 
and  inwardly,  will  be  approximating  to  God's  ideal, 
and  all  specific  virtues  will  be  his  in  germ.  Those  two 
precepts  lay  down  the  broad  outline,  and  all  that 
follow  in  the  way  of  specific  commandments  is  but 
filling  in  its  details. 

I.  We  observe  that  we  have  here,  first,  an  all-inclusive 
directory  for  the  outward  life. 

Now,  it  is  to  be  noticed  that  the  metaphor  of  sacrifice 
runs  through  the  whole  of  the  phraseology  of  my  text. 
The  word  rendered  '  present '  is  a  technical  expression 
for  the  sacerdotal  action  of  offering.  A  tacit  contrast 
is  drawn  between  the  sacrificial  ritual,  which  was 
familiar  to  Romans  as  well  as  Jews,  and  the  true 
Christian  sacrifice  and  service.  In  the  former  a  large 
portion  of  the  sacrifices  consisted  of  animals  which 
were  slain.  Ours  is  to  be  'a  living  sacrifice.'  In  the 
former  the  offering  was  presented  to  the  Deity,  and 
became  His  property.  In  the  Christian  service,  the 
gift  passes,  in  like  manner,  from  the  possession  of 
the  worshipper,  and  is  set  apart  for  the  uses  of  God, 
for  that  is  the  proper  meaning  of  the  word  *  holy.' 


V.  1]     THE  SACRIFICE  OF  THE  BODY     223 

The  outward  sacrifice  gave  an  odour  of  a  sweet  smell, 
which,  by  a  strong  metaphor,  was  declared  to  be 
fragrant  in  the  nostrils  of  Deity.  In  like  manner,  the 
Christian  sacrifice  is  'acceptable  unto  God.'  These 
other  sacrifices  were  purely  outward,  and  derived  no 
efficacy  from  the  disposition  of  the  worshipper.  Our 
sacrifice,  though  the  material  of  the  offering  be 
corporeal,  is  the  act  of  the  inner  man,  and  so  is  called 
•  rational '  rather  than  '  reasonable,'  as  our  Version  has 
it,  or  as  in  other  parts  of  Scripture,  'spiritual.'  And 
the  last  word  of  my  text,  'service,'  retains  the  sacer- 
dotal allusion,  because  it  does  not  mean  the  service  of 
a  slave  or  domestic,  but  that  of  a  priest. 

And  so  the  sum  of  the  whole  is  that  the  master-word 
for  the  outward  life  of  a  Christian  is  sacrifice.  That, 
again,  includes  two  things  —  self  -  surrender  and  sur- 
render to  God. 

Now,  Paul  was  not  such  a  superficial  moralist  as  to 
begin  at  the  wrong  end,  and  talk  about  the  surrender 
of  the  outward  life,  unless  as  the  result  of  the  prior 
surrender  of  the  inward,  and  that  priority  of  the 
consecration  of  the  man  to  his  offering  of  the  body  is 
contained  in  the  very  metaphor.  For  a  priest  needs 
to  be  consecrated  before  he  can  offer,  and  we  in  our 
innermost  wills,  in  the  depths  of  our  nature,  must  be 
surrendered  and  set  apart  to  God  ere  any  of  our  out- 
ward activities  can  be  laid  upon  His  altar.  The  Apostle, 
then,  does  not  make  the  mistake  of  substituting  ex- 
ternal for  internal  surrender,  but  he  presupposes  that 
the  latter  has  preceded.  He  puts  the  sequence  more 
fully  in  the  parallel  passage  in  this  very  letter :  '  Yield 
yourselves  unto  God,  and  your  bodies  as  instruments 
of  righteousness  unto  Him.'  So,  then,  i:r:-  "■  of  all,  we 
must  be  priests  by  our  inward  consecration,  and  then, 


224        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS   [ch.  xii. 

since  *  a  priest  must  have  somewhat  to  offer,'  we  must 
bring  the  outward  life  and  lay  it  upon  His  altar. 

Now,  of  the  two  thoughts  which  I  have  said  are 
involved  in  this  great  keyword,  the  former  is  common 
to  Christianity,  with  all  noble  systems  of  morality, 
whether  religious  or  irreligious.  It  is  a  commonplace, 
on  which  I  do  not  need  to  dwell,  that  every  man  who 
will  live  a  man's  life,  and  not  that  of  a  beast,  must 
sacrifice  the  flesh,  and  rigidly  keep  it  down.  But  that 
commonplace  is  lifted  into  an  altogether  new  region, 
assumes  a  new  solemnity,  and  finds  new  power  for  its 
fulfilment  when  we  add  to  the  moralist's  duty  of  con- 
trol of  the  animal  and  outward  nature  the  other 
thought,  that  the  surrender  must  be  to  God. 

There  is  no  need  for  my  dwelling  at  any  length  on 
the  various  practical  directions  in  which  this  great 
exhortation  must  be  wrought  out.  It  is  of  more  im- 
portance, by  far,  to  have  well  fixed  in  our  minds  and 
hearts  the  one  dominant  thought  that  sacrifice  is  the 
keyword  of  the  Christian  life  than  to  explain  the 
directions  in  which  it  applies.  But  still,  just  a  word  or 
two  about  these.  There  are  three  ways  in  which  we 
may  look  at  the  body,  which  the  Apostle  here  says  is 
to  be  yielded  up  unto  God. 

It  is  the  recipient  of  impressions  from  without. 
There  is  a  field  for  consecration.  The  eye  that  looks 
upon  evil,  and  by  the  look  has  rebellious,  lustful, 
sensuous,  foul  desires  excited  in  the  heart,  breaks  this 
solemn  law.  The  eye  that  among  the  things  seen 
dwells  with  complacency  on  the  pure,  and  turns  from 
the  impure  as  if  a  hot  iron  had  been  thrust  into  its 
pupil;  that  in  the  things  seen  discerns  shimmering 
behind  them,  and  manifested  through  them,  the  things 
unseen  and  eternal,  is  the  consecrated  eye.     'Art  for 


V.  1]    THE  SACRIFICE  OF  THE  BODY      225 

Art's  sake,'  to  quote  the  cant  of  the  day,  has  too  often 
meant  art  for  the  flesh's  sake.  And  there  are  pictures 
and  books,  and  sights  of  various  sorts,  flashed  before 
the  eyes  of  you  young  men  and  women  which  it  is 
pollution  to  dwell  upon,  and  should  be  pain  to  remem- 
ber. I  beseech  you  all  to  have  guard  over  these  gates 
of  the  heart,  and  to  pray, '  Turn  away  mine  eyes  from 
viewing  vanity.'  And  the  other  senses,  in  like  manner, 
have  need  to  be  closely  connected  with  God  if  they  are 
not  to  rush  us  down  to  the  devil. 

The  body  is  not  only  the  recipient  of  impressions. 
It  is  the  possessor  of  appetites  and  necessities.  See  to 
it  that  these  are  indulged,  with  constant  reference  to 
God.  It  is  no  small  attainment  of  the  Christian  life 
•  to  eat  our  meat  with  gladness  and  singleness  of  heart, 
praising  God.'  In  a  hundred  directions  this  charac- 
teristic of  our  corporeal  lives  tends  to  lead  us  all  away 
from  supreme  consecration  to  Him.  There  is  the 
senseless  luxury  of  this  generation.  There  is  the  ex- 
aggerated care  for  physical  strength  and  completeness 
amongst  the  young;  there  is  the  intemperance  in 
eating  and  drinking,  which  is  the  curse  and  the  shame 
of  England.  There  is  the  provision  for  the  flesh,  the 
absorbing  care  for  the  procuring  of  material  comforts, 
which  drowns  the  spirit  in  miserable  anxieties,  and 
makes  men  bond-slaves.  There  is  the  corruption  which 
comes  from  drunkenness  and  from  lust.  There  is  the 
indolence  which  checks  lofty  aspirations  and  stops 
a  man  in  the  middle  of  noble  work.  And  there 
are  many  other  forms  of  evil  on  which  I  need  not 
dwell,  all  of  which  are  swept  clean  out  of  the  way 
when  we  lay  to  heart  this  injunction:  'I  beseech  you 
present  your  bodies  a  living  sacrifice,'  and  let  appetites 
and  tastes  and  corporeal  needs  be  kept  in  rigid  sub- 

P 


y 


226         EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS    [ch.  xii. 

ordination  and  in  conscious  connection  with  Him.  I 
remember  a  quaint  old  saying  of  a  Grerman  school- 
master, who  apostrophised  his  body  thus:  'I  go  with 
you  three  times  a  day  to  eat ;  you  must  come  with  me 
three  times  a  day  to  pray.'  Subjugate  the  body,  and 
let  it  be  the  servant  and  companion  of  the  devout 
spirit. 

It  is  also,  besides  being  the  recipient  of  impressions, 
and  the  possessor  of  needs  and  appetites,  our  instru- 
ment for  working  in  the  world.  And  so  the  exhorta- 
tion of  my  text  comes  to  include  this,  that  all  our 
activities  done  by  means  of  brain  and  eye  and  tongue 
and  hand  and  foot  shall  be  consciously  devoted  to  Him, 
and  laid  as  a  sacrifice  upon  His  altar.  That  pervasive, 
universally  diffused  reference  to  God,  in  all  the  details 
of  daily  life,  is  the  thing  that  Christian  men  and 
women  need  most  of  all  to  try  to  cultivate.  'Pray 
without  ceasing,'  says  the  Apostle.  This  exhortation 
can  only  be  obeyed  if  our  work  is  indeed  worship,  being 
done  by  God's  help,  for  God's  sake,  in  communion 
with  God. 

So,  dear  friends,  sacrifice  is  the  keynote — meaning 
thereby  surrender,  control,  and  stimulus  of  the  corpo- 
real frame,  surrender  to  God,  in  regard  to  the  im- 
pressions which  we  allow  to  be  made  upon  our  senses, 
to  the  indulgence  which  we  grant  to  our  appetites, 
and  the  satisfaction  which  we  seek  for  our  needs, 
and  to  the  activities  which  we  engage  in  by  means 
of  this  wondrous  instrument  with  which  God  has 
trusted  us.  These  are  the  plain  principles  involved  in 
the  exhortation  of  my  text.  'He  that  soweth  to  the 
flesh,  shall  of  the  flesh  reap  corruption.'  '  I  keep  under 
my  body,  and  bring  it  into  subjection.'  It  is  a  good 
servant ;  it  is  a  bad  master. 


V.  1]    THE  SACRIFICE  OF  THE  BODY      227 

II.  Note,  secondly,  the  relation  between  this  priestly 
service  and  other  kinds  of  worship. 

I  need  only  say  a  word  about  that.  Paul  is  not 
meaning  to  depreciate  the  sacrificial  ritual,  from  which 
he  drew  his  emblem.  But  he  is  meaning  to  assert  that 
the  devotion  of  a  life,  manifested  through  bodily 
activity,  is  higher  in  its  nature  than  the  symbolical 
worship  of  any  altar  and  of  any  sacrifice.  And  that 
falls  in  with  prevailing  tendencies  in  this  day,  which 
has  laid  such  a  firm  hold  on  the  principle  that  daily 
conduct  is  better  than  formal  worship,  that  it  has 
forgotten  to  ask  the  question  whether  the  daily 
conduct  is  likely  to  be  satisfactory  if  the  formal 
worship  is  altogether  neglected.  I  believe,  as  pro- 
foundly as  any  man  can,  that  the  true  worship  is 
distinguishable  from  and  higher  than  the  more  sensu- 
ous forms  of  the  Catholic  or  other  sacramentarian 
churches,  or  the  more  simple  of  the  Puritan  and 
Nonconformist,  or  the  altogether  formless  of  the 
Quaker.  I  believe  that  the  best  worship  is  the  mani- 
fold activities  of  daily  life  laid  upon  God's  altar,  so 
that  the  division  between  things  secular  and  things 
sacred  is  to  a  large  extent  misleading  and  irrelevant. 
But  at  the  same  time  I  believe  that  you  have  very 
little  chance  of  getting  this  diffused  and  all-pervasive 
reference  of  all  a  man's  doings  to  God  unless  there  are, 
all  through  his  life,  recurring  with  daily  regularity, 
reservoirs  of  power,  stations  where  he  may  rest, 
kneeling-places  where  the  attitude  of  service  is  ex- 
changed for  the  attitude  of  supplication;  times  of 
quiet  communion  with  God  which  shall  feed  the 
worshipper's  activities  as  the  white  enowfields  on  the 
high  summits  feed  the  brooks  that  sparkle  by  the 
way,  and  bring  fertility  wherever  they  run.    So,  dear 


y 


228        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS   [ch.xii. 

brethren,  remember  that  whilst  life  is  the  field  of 
worship  there  must  be  the  inward  worship  within  the 
shrine  if  there  is  to  be  the  outward  service. 

III.  Lastly,  note  the  equally  comprehensive  motive 
and  ground  of  this  all-inclusive  directory  for  conduct. 

•  I  beseech  you,  by  the  mercies  of  God.'  That  plural 
does  not  mean  that  the  Apostle  is  extending  his  view 
over  the  whole  wide  field  of  the  divine  beneficence, 
but  rather  that  he  is  contemplating  the  one  all- 
inclusive  mercy  about  which  the  former  part  of  his 
letter  has  been  eloquent — viz.  the  gift  of  Christ — and 
contemplating  it  in  the  manif  oldness  of  the  blessings 
which  flow  from  it.  The  mercies  of  God  which  move 
a  man  to  yield  himself  as  a  sacrifice  are  not  the  diffused 
beneficences  of  His  providence,  but  the  concentrated 
love  that  lies  in  the  person  and  work  of  His  Son. 

And  there,  as  I  believe,  is  the  one  motive  to  which 
we  can  appeal  with  any  prospect  of  its  being  powerful 
enough  to  give  the  needful  impetus  all  through  a  life. 
The  sacrifice  of  Christ  is  the  ground  on  which  our 
sacrifices  can  be  offered  and  accepted,  for  it  was  the 
sacrifice  of  a  death  propitiatory  and  cleansing,  and  on 
it,  as  the  ancient  ritual  taught  us,  may  be  reared  the 
enthusiastic  sacrifice  of  a  life — a  thankoffering  for  it. 

Nor  is  it  only  the  ground  on  which  our  sacrifice  is 
accepted,  but  it  is  the  great  motive  by  which  our 
sacrifice  is  impelled.  There  is  the  difference  between 
the  Christian  teaching,  'present  your  bodies  a  sacri- 
fice,' and  the  highest  and  noblest  of  similar  teaching 
elsewhere.  One  of  the  purest  and  loftiest  of  the 
ancient  moralists  was  a  contemporary  of  Paul's.  He 
would  have  re-echoed  from  his  heart  the  Apostle's 
directory,  but  he  knew  nothing  of  the  Apostle's  motive. 
So  his  exhortations  were  powerless.    He  had  no  spell 


V.  1]     THE  SACRIFICE  OF  THE  BODY    229 

to  work  on  men's  hearts,  and  his  lofty  teachings  were 
as  the  voice  of  one  crying  in  the  wilderness.  Whilst 
Seneca  taught,  Rome  was  a  cesspool  of  moral  putrid- 
ity and  Nero  butchered.  So  it  always  is.  There  may 
be  noble  teachings  about  self-control,  purity,  and  the 
like,  but  an  evil  and  adulterous  generation  is  slow 
to  dance  to  such  piping. 
Our  poet  has  bid  us — 

•  Move  upwards,  casting  out  the  beast, 
And  let  the  ape  and  tiger  die.' 

But  how  is  this  heavy  bulk  of  ours  to  '  move  upwards ' ; 
how  is  the  beast  to  be  'cast  out';  how  are  the  *ape 
and  tiger'  in  us  to  be  slain?  Paul  has  told  us,  'By 
the  mercies  of  God.'  Christ's  gift,  meditated  on, 
accepted,  introduced  into  will  and  heart,  is  the  one 
power  that  will  melt  our  obstinacy,  the  one  magnet 
that  will  draw  us  after  it. 

Nothing  else,  brethren,  as  your  own  experience  has 
taught  you,  and  as  the  experience  of  the  world  con- 
firms, nothing  else  will  bind  Behemoth,  and  put  a 
hook  in  his  nose.  Apart  from  the  constraining  motive 
of  the  love  of  Christ,  all  the  cords  of  prudence,  con- 
science, advantage,  by  which  men  try  to  bind  their 
unruly  passions  and  manacle  the  insisting  flesh,  are 
like  the  chains  on  the  demoniac's  wrists — '  And  he  had 
oftentimes  been  bound  by  chains,  and  the  chains  were 
snapped  asunder.'  But  the  silken  leash  with  which 
the  fair  Una  in  the  poem  leads  the  lion,  the  silken 
leash  of  love  will  bind  the  strong  man,  and  enable  us 
to  rule  ourselves.  If  we  will  open  our  hearts  to  the 
sacrifice  of  Christ,  we  shall  be  able  to  offer  ourselves 
as  thankofferings.  If  we  will  let  His  love  sway  our 
wills  and  consciences,  He  will  give  our  wills  and  con- 
sciences power  to  master  and  to  offer  up  our  flesh 


230        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.  xii. 

And  the  great  change,  according  to  which  He  will  one 
day  change  the  body  of  our  humiliation  into  the  like- 
ness of  the  body  of  His  glory,  will  be  begun  in  us,  if  we 
live  under  the  influence  of  the  motive  and  the  com- 
mandment which  this  Apostle  bound  together  in  our 
text  and  in  his  other  great  words,  'Ye  are  not  your 
own;  ye  are  bought  with  a  price,  therefore  glorify 
God  in  your  body  and  spirit,  which  are  His.* 


TRANSFIGURATION 

'  Be  not  conformed  to  this  world ;  but  be  ye  transformed  by  the  renewing  of 
your  mind,  that  ye  may  prove  what  is  that  good,  and  acceptable,  and  perfect  will 
of  God.'— Romans  xii.  2. 

I  HAD  occasion  to  point  out,  in  a  sermon  on  the  pre- 
ceding verse,  that  the  Apostle  is,  in  this  context, 
making  the  transition  from  the  doctrinal  to  the 
practical  part  of  his  letter,  and  that  he  lays  down 
broad  principles,  of  which  all  his  subsequent  injunc- 
tions and  exhortations  are  simply  the  filling  up  of  the 
details.  One  master  word,  for  the  whole  Christian 
life,  as  we  then  saw,  is  sacrifice,  self-surrender,  and 
that  to  God.  In  like  manner,  Paul  here  brackets,  with 
that  great  conception  of  the  Christian  life,  another 
equally  dominant  and  equally  comprehensive.  In  one 
aspect,  it  is  self-surrender ;  in  another,  it  is  growing 
transformation.  And,  just  as  in  the  former  verse  we 
found  that  an  inward  surrender  preceded  the  outward 
sacrifice,  and  that  the  inner  man,  having  been  conse- 
crated as  a  priest,  by  this  yielding  of  himself  to  God, 
was  then  called  upon  to  manifest  inward  consecration 
by  outward  sacrifice,  so  in  this  further  exhortation,  an 
inward  'renewing  of   the    mind'  is  regarded  as  the 


V.  2]  TRANSFIGURATION  231 

necessary  antecedent  of  transformation  of  outward 
life. 

So  we  have  here  another  comprehensive  view  of 
what  the  Christian  life  ought  to  be,  and  that  not  only- 
grasped,  as  it  were,  in  its  very  centre  and  essence,  but 
traced  out  in  two  directions — as  to  that  which  must 
precede  it  within,  and  as  to  that  which  follows  it  as 
consequence.  An  outline  of  the  possibilities,  and 
therefore  the  duties,  of  the  Christian,  is  set  forth 
here,  in  these  three  thoughts  of  my  text,  the  renewed 
mind  issuing  in  a  transfigured  life,  crowned  and 
rewarded  by  a  clearer  and  ever  clearer  insight  into 
what  we  ought  to  be  and  do. 

I.  Note,  then,  that  the  foundation  of  all  transforma- 
tion of  character  and  conduct  is  laid  deep  in  a  re- 
newed mind. 

Now  it  is  a  matter  of  world-wide  experience,  verified 
by  each  of  us  in  our  own  case,  if  we  have  ever  been 
honest  in  the  attempt,  that  the  power  of  self -improve- 
ment is  limited  by  very  narrow  bounds.  Any  man 
that  has  ever  tried  to  cure  himself  of  the  most  trivial 
habit  which  he  desires  to  get  rid  of,  or  to  alter  in  the 
slightest  degree  the  set  of  some  strong  taste  or 
current  of  his  being,  knows  how  little  he  can  do,  even 
by  the  most  determined  effort.  Something  may  be 
effected,  but,  alas  !  as  the  proverbs  of  all  nations  and 
all  lands  have  taught  us,  it  is  very  little  indeed.  '  You 
cannot  expel  nature  with  a  fork,'  said  the  Roman. 
'  What 's  bred  in  the  bone  won't  come  out  of  the  flesh,' 
says  the  Englishman.  '  Can  the  Ethiopian  change  his 
skin  or  the  leopard  his  spots  ? '  says  the  Hebrew.  And 
we  all  know  what  the  answer  to  that  question  is. 
The  problem  that  is  set  before  a  man  when  you  tell 
him  to  effect  self -improvement  is  something  like  that 


232        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.  xii. 

which  confronted  that  poor  paralytic  lying  in  the  porch 
at  the  pool :  '  If  you  can  walk  you  will  be  able  to  get  to 
the  pool  that  will  make  you  able  to  walk.  But  you 
have  got  to  be  cured  before  you  can  do  what  you  need 
to  do  in  order  to  be  cured.'  Only  one  knife  can  cut 
the  knot.  The  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  presents  itself, 
not  as  a  mere  republication  of  morality,  not  as  merely 
a  new  stimulus  and  motive  to  do  what  is  right,  but  as 
an  actual  communication  to  men  of  a  new  power  to 
work  in  them,  a  strong  hand  laid  upon  our  poor,  feeble 
hand  with  which  we  try  to  put  on  the  brake  or  to  apply 
the  stimulus.  It  is  a  new  gift  of  a  life  which  will 
unfold  itself  after  its  own  nature,  as  the  bud  into 
flower,  and  the  flower  into  fruit ;  giving  new  desires, 
tastes,  directions,  and  renewing  the  whole  nature. 
And  so,  says  Paul,  the  beginning  of  transformation 
of  character  is  the  renovation  in  the  very  centre  of 
the  being,  and  the  communication  of  a  new  impulse 
and  power  to  the  inward  self. 

Now,  I  suppose  that  in  my  text  the  word  '  mind '  is 
not  so  much  employed  in  the  widest  sense,  including 
all  the  affections  and  will,  and  the  other  faculties  of 
our  nature,  as  in  the  narrower  sense  of  the  perceptive 
power,  or  that  faculty  in  our  nature  by  which  we 
recognise,  and  make  our  own,  certain  truths.  'The 
renewing  of  the  mind,'  then,  is  only,  in  such  an  inter- 
pretation, a  theological  way  of  putting  the  simpler 
English  thought,  a  change  of  estimates,  a  new  set  of 
views ;  or  if  that  word  be  too  shallow,  as  indeed  it  is, 
a  new  set  of  convictions.  It  is  profoundly  true  that 
'As  a  man  thinketh,  so  is  he.'  Our  characters  are 
largely  made  by  our  estimates  of  what  is  good  or  bad, 
desirable  or  undesirable.  And  what  the  Apostle  is 
thinking  about  here  is,  as  I  take  it,  principally  how 


V.2]  TRANSFIGURATION  283 

the  body  of  Christian  truth,  if  it  effects  a  lodgment  in, 
not  merely  the  brain  of  a  man,  but  his  whole  nature, 
will  modify  and  alter  it  all.  Why,  we  all  know  how 
often  a  whole  life  has  been  revolutionised  by  the 
sudden  dawning  or  rising  in  its  sky,  of  some  starry 
new  truth,  formerly  hidden  and  undreamed  of.  And 
if  we  should  translate  the  somewhat  archaic  phrase- 
ology of  our  text  into  the  plainest  of  modern  English, 
it  just  comes  to  this  :  If  you  want  to  change  your 
characters,  and  God  knows  they  all  need  it,  change 
the  deep  convictions  of  your  mind;  and  get  hold,  as 
living  realities,  of  the  great  truths  of  Christ's  Gospel. 
If  you  and  I  really  believed  what  we  say  we  believe, 
that  Jesus  Christ  has  died  for  us,  and  lives  for  us,  and 
is  ready  to  pour  out  upon  us  the  gift  of  His  Divine 
Spirit,  and  wills  that  we  should  be  like  Him,  and  holds 
out  to  us  the  great  and  wonderful  hopes  and  pro- 
spects of  an  absolutely  eternal  life  of  supreme  and 
serene  blessedness  at  His  right  hand,  should  we  be, 
could  we  be,  the  sort  of  people  that  most  of  us  are  ? 
It  is  not  the  much  that  you  say  you  believe  that  shapes 
your  character;  it  is  the  little  that  you  habitually 
realise.  Truth  professed  has  no  transforming  power ; 
truth  received  and  fed  upon  can  revolutionise  a  man's 
whole  character. 

So,  dear  brethren,  remember  that  my  text,  though 
it  is  an  analysis  of  the  methods  of  Christian  progress, 
and  though  it  is  a  wonderful  setting  forth  of  the 
possibilities  open  to  the  poorest,  dwarfed,  blinded, 
corrupted  nature,  is  also  all  commandment.  And  if  it 
is  true  that  the  principles  of  the  Gospel  exercise  trans- 
forming power  upon  men's  lives,  and  that  in  order  for 
these  principles  to  effect  their  natural  results  there 
must  be  honest  dealing  with  them,  on  our  parts,  take 


234        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS   [ch.  xii. 

this  as  the  practical  outcome  of  all  this  first  part  of 
my  sermon — let  us  all  see  to  it  that  we  keep  ourselves 
in  touch  with  the  truths  which  we  say  we  believe; 
and  that  we  thorough-goingly  apply  these  truths 
in  all  their  searching,  revealing,  quickening,  curbing 
power,  to  every  action  of  our  daily  lives.  If  for  one 
day  we  could  bring  everything  that  we  do  into  touch 
with  the  creed  that  we  profess,  we  should  be  different 
men  and  women.  Make  of  your  every  thought  an 
action ;  link  every  action  with  a  thought.  Or,  to  put 
it  more  Christianlike,  let  there  be  nothing  in  your 
creed  which  is  not  in  your  commandments;  and  let 
nothing  be  in  your  life  which  is  not  moulded  by  these. 
The  beginning  of  all  transformation  is  the  revolu- 
tionised conviction  of  a  mind  that  has  accepted  the 
truths  of  the  Gospel. 

II.  Well  then,  secondly,  note  the  transfigured  life. 

The  Apostle  uses  in  his  positive  commandment,  *  Be 
ye  transformed,'  the  same  word  which  is  employed  by 
two  of  the  Evangelists  in  their  account  of  our  Lord's 
transfiguration.  And  although  I  suppose  it  would  be 
going  too  far  to  assert  that  there  is  a  distinct  reference 
intended  to  that  event,  it  may  be  permissible  to  look 
back  to  it  as  being  a  lovely  illustration  of  the  possi- 
bilities that  open  to  an  honest  Christian  life — the 
possibility  of  a  change,  coming  from  within  upwards, 
and  shedding  a  strange  radiance  on  the  face,  whilst 
yet  the  identity  remains.  So  by  the  rippling  up  from 
within  of  the  renewed  mind  wiU  come  into  our  lives 
a  transformation  not  altogether  unlike  that  which 
passed  on  Him  when  His  garments  did  shine  'so  as 
no  fuller  on  earth  could  white  them ' ;  and  His  face  was 
as  the  sun  in  his  strength. 

The  life  is  to  be  transfigured,  yet  it  remains  the 


V.  2]  TRANSFIGURATION  235 

same,  not  only  in  the  consciousness  of  personal  iden- 
tity, but  in  the  main  trend  and  drift  of  the  character. 
There  is  nothing  in  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  which 
is  meant  to  obliterate  the  lines  of  the  strongly  marked 
individuality  which  each  of  us  receives  by  nature. 
Rather  the  Gospel  is  meant  to  heighten  and  deepen 
these,  and  to  make  each  man  more  intensely  himself, 
more  thoroughly  individual  and  unlike  anybody  else. 
The  perfection  of  our  nature  is  found  in  the  pursuit, 
to  the  furthest  point,  of  the  characteristics  of  our 
nature,  and  so,  by  reason  of  diversity,  there  is  the 
greater  harmony,  and,  all  taken  together,  will  reflect 
less  inadequately  the  infinite  glories  of  which  they  are 
all  partakers.  But  whilst  the  individuality  remains, 
and  ought  to  be  heightened  by  Christian  consecration, 
yet  a  change  should  pass  over  our  lives,  like  the  change 
that  passes  over  the  winter  landscape  when  the 
summer  sun  draws  out  the  green  leaves  from  the  hard 
black  boughs,  and  flashes  a  fresh  colour  over  all  the 
brown  pastures.  There  should  be  such  a  change  as 
when  a  drop  or  two  of  ruby  wine  falls  into  a  cup,  and 
so  diffuses  a  gradual  warmth  of  tint  over  all  the 
whiteness  of  the  water.  Christ  in  Xis,  if  we  are  true 
to  Him,  will  make  us  more  ourselves,  and  yet  new 
creatures  in  Christ  Jesus. 

And  the  transformation  is  to  be  into  His  likeness 
who  is  the  pattern  of  all  perfection.  We  must  be 
moulded  after  the  same  type.  There  are  two  types 
possible  for  us :  this  world ;  Jesus  Christ.  We  have 
to  make  our  choice  which  is  to  be  the  headline  after 
which  we  are  to  try  to  write.  '  They  that  make  them 
are  like  unto  them.'  Men  resemble  their  gods ;  men 
become  more  or  less  like  their  idols.  What  you  con- 
ceive to  be  desirable  you  will  more  and  more  assimi- 


236        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS   [ch.  xii. 

late  yourselves  to.  Christ  is  the  Christian  man's 
pattern;  is  He  not  better  than  the  blind,  corrupt 
world  ? 

That  transformation  is  no  sudden  thing,  though  the 
revolution  which  underlies  it  may  be  instantaneous. 
The  working  out  of  the  new  motives,  the  working  in 
of  the  new  power,  is  no  mere  work  of  a  moment.  It 
is  a  lifelong  task  till  the  lump  be  leavened.  Michael 
Angelo,  in  his  mystical  way,  used  to  say  that  sculpture 
effected  its  aim  by  the  removal  of  parts;  as  if  the 
statue  lay  somehow  hid  in  the  marble  block.  We 
have,  day  by  day,  to  work  at  the  task  of  removing 
the  superfluities  that  mask  its  outlines.  Sometimes 
with  a  heavy  mallet,  and  a  hard  blow,  and  a  broad 
chisel,  we  have  to  take  away  huge  masses ;  sometimes, 
w^ith  fine  tools  and  delicate  touches,  to  remove  a 
grain  or  two  of  powdered  dust  from  the  sparkling 
block,  but  always  to  seek  more  and  more,  by  slow, 
patient  toil,  to  conform  ourselves  to  that  serene  type 
of  all  perfectness  that  we  have  learned  to  love  in 
Jesus  Christ. 

And  remember,  brethren,  this  transformation  is 
no  magic  change  effected  whilst  men  sleep.  It  is  a 
commandment  which  we  have  to  brace  ourselves  to 
perform,  day  by  day  to  set  ourselves  to  the  task  of 
more  completely  assimilating  ourselves  to  our  Lord. 
It  comes  to  be  a  solemn  question  for  each  of  us 
whether  we  can  say,  '  To-day  I  am  liker  Jesus  Christ 
than  I  was  yesterday ;  to-day  the  truth  which  renews 
the  mind  has  a  deeper  hold  upon  me  than  it  ever  had 
before.' 

But  this  positive  commandment  is  only  one  side  of 
the  transfiguration  that  is  to  be  effected.  It  is  clear 
enough  that  if  a  new  likeness  is  being  stamped  upon 


T.2]  TRANSFIGURATION  237 

a  man,  the  process  may  be  looked  at  from  the  other 
side  ;  and  that  in  proportion  as  we  become  liker  Jesus 
Christ,  we  shall  become  more  unlike  the  old  type  to 
which  we  were  previously  conformed.  And  so,  says 
Paul,  'Be  not  conformed  to  this  world,  but  be  ye 
transformed.'  He  does  not  mean  to  say  that  the  non- 
conformity precedes  the  transformation.  They  are  two 
sides  of  one  process ;  both  arising  from  the  renewing  of 
the  mind  within. 

Now,  I  do  not  wish  to  do  more  than  just  touch 
most  lightly  upon  the  thoughts  that  are  here,  but  I 
dare  not  pass  them  by  altogether.  *  This  world '  here, 
in  my  text,  is  more  properly  '  this  age,'  which  means 
substantially  the  same  thing  as  John's  favourite  word 
•  world,'  viz.  the  sum  total  of  godless  men  and  things 
conceived  of  as  separated  from  God,  only  that  by  this 
expression  the  essentially  fleeting  nature  of  that  type 
is  more  distinctly  set  forth.  Now  the  world  is  the 
world  to-day  just  as  much  as  it  was  in  Paul's  time. 
No  doubt  the  Gospel  has  sweetened  society ;  no  doubt 
the  average  of  godless  life  in  England  is  a  better 
thing  than  the  average  of  godless  life  in  the  Roman 
Empire.  No  doubt  there  is  a  great  deal  of  Christianity 
diffused  through  the  average  opinion  and  ways  of 
looking  at  things,  that  prevail  around  us.  But  the 
world  is  the  world  still.  There  are  maxims  and  ways 
of  living,  and  so  on,  characteristic  of  the  Christian 
life,  which  are  in  as  complete  antagonism  to  the  ideas 
and  maxims  and  practices  that  prevail  amongst  men 
who  are  outside  of  the  influences  of  this  Christian 
truth  in  their  own  hearts,  as  ever  they  were. 

And  although  it  can  only  be  a  word,  I  want  to  put 
in  here  a  very  earnest  word  which  the  tendencies  of 
this  generation  do  very  specially  require.    It  seems  to 


238         EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.  xii. 

be  thought,  by  a  great  many  people,  who  call  them- 
selves Christians  nowadays,  that  the  nearer  they  can 
come  in  life,  in  ways  of  looking  at  things,  in  estimates 
of  literature,  for  instance,  in  customs  of  society,  in 
politics,  in  trade,  and  especially  in  amusements — the 
nearer  they  can  come  to  the  un-Christian  world,  the 
more  '  broad '  (save  the  mark !)  and  *  superior  to  pre- 
judice '  they  are.  •  Puritanism,'  not  only  in  theology, 
but  in  life  and  conduct,  has  come  to  be  at  a  discount  in 
these  days.  And  it  seems  to  be  by  a  great  many  pro- 
fessing Christians  thought  to  be  a  great  feat  to  walk 
as  the  mules  on  the  Alps  do,  with  one  foot  over  the 
path  and  the  precipice  down  below.  Keep  away  from 
the  edge.  You  are  safer  so.  Although,  of  course,  I 
am  not  talking  about  mere  conventional  dissimilar- 
ities ;  and  though  I  know  and  believe  and  feel  all  that 
can  be  said  about  the  insufficiency,  and  even  in- 
sincerity, of  such,  yet  there  is  a  broad  gulf  between 
the  man  who  believes  in  Jesus  Christ  and  His  Gospel 
and  the  man  who  does  not,  and  the  resulting  con- 
ducts cannot  be  the  same  unless  the  Christian  man  is 
insincere. 

III.  And  now  lastly,  and  only  a  word,  note  the  great 
reward  and  crown  of  this  transfigured  life. 

Paul  puts  it  in  words  which,  if  I  had  time,  would 
require  some  commenting  upon.  The  issue  of  such 
a  life  is,  to  put  it  into  plain  English,  an  increased 
power  of  perceiving,  instinctively  and  surely,  what  it 
is  God's  will  that  we  should  do.  And  that  is  the 
reward.  Just  as  when  you  take  away  disturbing 
masses  of  metal  from  near  a  compass,  it  trembles 
to  its  true  point,  so  when,  by  the  discipline  of 
which  I  have  been  speaking,  there  are  swept  away 
from  either  side  of  us  the  things  that  would  perturb 


V.2]  TRANSFIGURATION  239 

our  judgment,  there  comes,  as  blessing  and  reward, 
a  clear  insight  into  that  which  it  is  our  duty 
to  do. 

There  may  be  many  difficulties  left,  many  per- 
plexities. There  is  no  promise  here,  nor  is  there  any- 
thing in  the  tendencies  of  Christ-like  living,  to  lead  us 
to  anticipate  that  guidance  in  regard  to  matters  of 
prudence  or  expediency  or  temporal  advantage  will 
follow  from  such  a  transfigured  life.  All  such  matters 
are  still  to  be  determined  in  the  proper  fashion,  by 
the  exercise  of  our  own  best  judgment  and  common- 
sense.  But  in  the  higher  region,  the  knowledge  of 
good  and  evil,  surely  it  is  a  blessed  reward,  and  one  of 
the  highest  that  can  be  given  to  a  man,  that  there 
shall  be  in  him  so  complete  a  harmony  with  God  that, 
like  God's  Son,  he  •  does  always  the  things  that  please 
Him,'  and  that  the  Father  will  show  him  whatsoever 
things  Himself  doeth  ;  and  that  these  also  will  the  son 
do  likewise.  To  know  beyond  doubt  what  I  ought  to 
do,  and  knowing,  to  have  no  hesitation  or  reluctance 
in  doing  it,  seems  to  me  to  be  heaven  upon  earth,  and 
the  man  that  has  it  needs  but  little  more.  This,  then, 
is  the  reward.  Each  peak  we  climb  opens  wider 
and  clearer  prospects  into  the  untravelled  land 
before  us. 

And  so,  brethren,  here  is  the  way,  the  only  way,  by 
which  we  can  change  ourselves,  first  let  us  have  our 
minds  renewed  by  contact  with  the  truth,  then  we 
shall  be  able  to  transform  our  lives  into  the  likeness 
of  Jesus  Christ,  and  our  faces  too  will  shine,  and  our 
lives  will  be  ennobled,  by  a  serene  beauty  which  men 
cannot  but  admire,  though  it  may  rebuke  them.  And 
as  the  issue  of  all  we  shall  have  clearer  and  deeper 
insight  into  that  will,  which  to  know  is  life,  in  keeping 


240        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.  xii. 

of  which,  there  is  great  reward.  And  thus  our  apostle's 
promise  may  be  fulfilled  for  each  of  us.  '  We  all  with 
unveiled  faces  reflecting ' — as  a  mirror  does — '  the 
glory  of  the  Lord,  are  changed  ,  ,  .  into  the  same 
image.' 


SOBER  THINKING 

'  For  I  say,  through  the  grace  that  is  given  unto  me,  to  every  man  that  is  among 
you,  not  to  think  of  himself  more  highly  than  he  ought  to  think ;  but  to  think 
soberly,  according  as  God  hath  dealt  to  every  man  the  measure  of  faith,'— 
Romans  xii.  3. 

It  is  hard  to  give  advice  without  seeming  to  assume 
superiority;  it  is  hard  to  take  it,  unless  the  giver 
identifies  himself  with  the  receiver,  and  shows  that  his 
counsel  to  others  is  a  law  for  himself.  Paul  does  so 
here,  led  by  the  delicate  perception  which  comes  from 
a  loving  heart,  compared  with  which  deliberate  *  tact '  is 
cold  and  clumsy.  He  wishes,  as  the  first  of  the  specific 
duties  to  which  he  invites  the  Roman  Christians,  an 
estimate  of  themselves  based  upon  the  recognition 
of  God  as  the  Giver  of  all  capacities  and  graces,  and 
leading  to  a  faithful  use  for  the  general  good  of  the 

•  gifts  differing  according  to  the  grace  given  to  us.'  In 
the  first  words  of  our  text,  he  enforces  his  counsel  by 
an  appeal  to  his  apostolic  authority;  but  he  so  pre- 
sents it  that,  instead  of  separating  himself  from  the 
Roman  Christians  by  it,  he  unites  himself  with  them. 
He  speaks  of  *  the  grace  given  to  me,'  and  in  verse  6  of 

•  the  grace  given  to  us.'  He  was  made  an  Apostle  by 
the  same  giving  God  who  has  bestowed  varying  gifts 
on  each  of  them.  He  knows  what  is  the  grace  which 
he  possesses  as  he  would  have  them  know;  and  in 
these  counsels  he  is  assuming  no  superiority,  but  is 


V.3]  SOBER  THINKING  241 

simply  using  the  special  gift  bestowed  on  him  for  the 
good  of  all.  With  this  delicate  turn  of  what  might 
i^lse  have  sounded  harshly  authoritative,  putting  pro- 
minently forward  the  divine  gift  and  letting  the  man 
Paul  to  whom  it  was  given  fall  into  the  background, 
he  counsels  as  the  first  of  the  social  duties  which 
Christian  men  owe  to  one  another,  a  sober  and  just 
estimate  of  themselves.  This  sober  estimate  is  here 
regarded  as  being  important  chiefly  as  an  aid  to  right 
service.  It  is  immediately  followed  by  counsels  to 
the  patient  and  faithful  exercise  of  differing  gifts. 
For  thus  we  may  know  what  our  gifts  are ;  and  the 
acquisition  of  such  knowledge  is  the  aim  of  our 
text. 

I.  What  determines  our  gifts. 

Paul  here  gives  a  precise  standard,  or  '  measure '  as 
he  calls  it,  according  to  which  we  are  to  estimate 
ourselves.  *  Faith '  is  the  measure  of  our  gifts,  and  is 
itself  a  gift  from  God.  The  strength  of  a  Christian 
man's  faith  determines  his  whole  Christian  character. 
Faith  is  trust,  the  attitude  of  receptivity.  There  are 
in  it  a  consciousness  of  need,  a  yearning  desire  and  a 
confidence  of  expectation.  It  is  the  open  empty  hand 
held  up  with  the  assurance  that  it  will  be  filled ;  it  is 
the  empty  pitcher  let  down  into  the  well  with  the  assur- 
ance that  it  will  be  drawn  up  filled.  It  is  the  precise 
opposite  of  the  self-dependent  isolation  which  shuts  us 
out  from  God.  The  law  of  the  Christian  life  is  ever, 
'  according  to  your  faith  be  it  unto  you ' ;  *  believe  that 
ye  receive  and  ye  have  them.'  So  then  the  more  faith 
a  man  exercises  the  more  of  God  and  Christ  he  has. 
It  is  the  measure  of  our  capacity,  hence  there  may  be 
indefinite  increase  in  the  gifts  which  God  bestows  on 
faithful  souls.     Each  of  us  will  have  as  much  as  he 

Q 


242        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS   [ch.xil 

desires  and  is  capable  of  containing.  The  walls  of  the 
heart  are  elastic,  and  desire  expands  them. 

The  grace  given  by  faith  works  in  the  line  of  its 
possessor's  natural  faculties;  but  these  are  superna- 
turally  reinforced  and  strengthened  while,  at  the  same 
time,  they  are  curbed  and  controlled,  by  the  divine  gift, 
and  the  natural  gifts  thus  dealt  with  become  what 
Paul  calls  charisms.  The  whole  nature  of  a  Christian 
should  be  ennobled,  elevated,  made  more  delicate  and 
intense,  when  the  'Spirit  of  life  that  is  in  Christ 
Jesus '  abides  in  and  inspires  it.  Just  as  a  sunless 
landscape  is  smitten  into  sudden  beauty  by  a  burst  of 
sunshine  which  heightens  the  colouring  of  the  flowers  on 
the  river's  bank,  and  is  flashed  back  from  every  silvery 
ripple  on  the  stream,  so  the  faith  which  brings  the  life 
of  Christ  into  the  life  of  the  Christian  makes  him  more 
of  a  man  than  he  was  before.  So,  there  will  be  infinite 
variety  in  the  resulting  characters.  It  is  the  same 
force  in  various  forms  that  rolls  in  the  thunder  or 
gleams  in  the  dewdrops,  that  paints  the  butterfly's 
feathers  or  flashes  in  a  star.  All  individual  idiosyn- 
crasies should  be  developed  in  the  Christian  Church, 
and  will  be  when  its  members  yield  themselves  fully  to 
the  indwelling  Spirit,  and  can  truly  declare  that  the 
lives  which  they  live  in  the  flesh  they  live  by  the  faith 
of  the  Son  of  God. 

But  Paul  here  regards  the  measure  of  faith  as  itself 
'  dealt  to  every  man ' ;  and  however  we  may  construe 
the  grammar  of  this  sentence  there  is  a  deep  sense  in 
which  our  faith  is  God's  gift  to  us.  "We  have  to  give 
equal  emphasis  to  the  two  conceptions  of  faith  as  a 
human  act  and  as  a  divine  bestowal,  which  have  so 
often  been  pitted  against  each  other  as  contradictory 
when  really  they  are  complementary.     The  apparent 


V.  3]  SOBER  THINKING  243 

antagonism  between  them  is  but  one  instance  of  the 
great  antithesis  to  which  we  come  to  at  last  in  refer- 
ence to  all  human  thought  on  the  relations  of  man  to 
God.  '  It  is  He  that  worketh  in  us  both  to  will  and  to 
do  of  His  own  good  pleasure ' ;  and  all  our  goodness  is 
God-given  goodness,  and  yet  it  is  our  goodness.  Every 
devout  heart  has  a  consciousness  that  the  faith  which 
knits  it  to  God  is  God's  work  in  it,  and  that  left  to 
itself  it  would  have  remained  alienated  and  faithless. 
The  consciousness  that  his  faith  was  his  own  act  blended 
in  full  harmony  with  the  twin  consciousness  that  it 
was  Christ's  gift,  in  the  agonised  father's  prayer,  *  Lord, 
I  believe,  help  Thou  mine  unbelief.' 

II.  What  is  a  just  estimate  of  our  gifts. 

The  Apostle  tells  us,  negatively,  that  we  are  not 
to  think  more  highly  than  we  ought  to  think,  and 
positively  that  we  are  to  *  think  soberly.' 

To  arrive  at  a  just  estimate  of  ourselves  the  estimate 
must  ever  be  accompanied  with  a  distinct  consciousness 
that  all  is  God's  gift.  That  will  keep  us  from  anything 
in  the  nature  of  pride  or  over-weening  self-import- 
ance. It  will  lead  to  true  humility,  which  is  not 
ignorance  of  what  we  can  do,  but  recognition  that  we, 
the  doers,  are  of  ourselves  but  poor  creatures.  We 
are  less  likely  to  fancy  that  we  are  greater  than  we 
are  when  we  feel  that,  whatever  we  are,  God  made  us 
so.  'What  hast  thou  that  thou  didst  not  receive? 
Now,  if  thou  didst  receive  it,  why  dost  thou  glory,  as 
if  thou  hadst  not  received  it  ? ' 

Further,  it  is  to  be  noted  that  the  estimate  of  gifts 
which  Paul  enjoins  is  an  estimate  with  a  view  to 
service.  Much  self -investigation  is  morbid,  because  it 
is  self-absorbed;  and  much  is  morbid  because  it  is 
undertaken  only  for  the  purpose  of  ascertaining  one's 


244        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS   [ch.  xii. 

'spiritual  condition.'  Such  self-examination  is  good 
enough  in  its  way,  and  may  sometimes  be  very  neces- 
sary; but  a  testing  of  one's  own  capacities  for  the 
purpose  of  ascertaining  what  we  are  fit  for,  and  what 
therefore  it  is  our  duty  to  do,  is  far  more  wholesome. 
Gifts  are  God's  summons  to  work,  and  our  first  re- 
sponse to  the  summons  should  be  our  scrutiny  of  our 
gifts  with  a  distinct  purpose  of  using  them  for  the 
great  end  for  which  we  received  them.  It  is  well  to 
take  stock  of  the  loaves  that  we  have,  if  the  result  be 
that  we  bring  our  poor  provisions  to  Him,  and  put 
them  in  His  hands,  that  He  may  give  them  back  to  us 
so  multiplied  as  to  be  more  than  adequate  to  the  needs 
of  the  thousands.  Such  just  estimate  of  our  gifts  is  to  be 
attained  mainly  by  noting  ourselves  at  work.  Patient 
self-observation  may  be  important,  but  is  apt  to  be 
mistaken ;  and  the  true  test  of  what  we  can  do  is  what 
we  do  do. 

The  just  estimate  of  our  gifts  which  Paul  enjoins  is 
needful  in  order  that  we  may  ascertain  what  God  has 
meant  us  to  be  and  do,  and  may  neither  waste  our 
strength  in  trying  to  be  some  one  else,  nor  hide  our 
talent  in  the  napkin  of  ignorance  or  false  humility. 
There  is  quite  as  much  harm  done  to  Christian  character 
and  Christian  service  by  our  failure  to  recognise  what  is 
in  our  power,  as  by  ambitious  or  ostentatious  attempts 
at  what  is  above  our  power.  We  have  to  be  ourselves 
as  God  has  made  us  in  our  natural  faculties,  and  as  the 
new  life  of  Christ  operating  on  these  has  made  us  new 
creatures  in  Him  not  by  changing  but  by  enlarging 
our  old  natures.  It  matters  nothing  what  the  special 
form  of  a  Christian  man's  service  may  be ;  the  smallest 
and  the  greatest  are  alike  to  the  Lord  of  all,  and  He 
appoints  His  servants'  work.     Whether  the  servant  be 


V.3]  MANY  AND  ONE  245 

a  cup-bearer  or  a  counsellor  is  of  little  moment.  *  He 
that  is  faithful  in  that  which  is  least,  is  faithful  also  in 
much.' 

The  positive  aspect  of  this  right  estimate  of  one's 
gifts  is,  if  we  fully  render  the  Apostle's  words,  as  the 
Revised  Version  does,  '  so  to  think  as  to  think  soberly.' 
There  is  to  be  self-knowledge  in  order  to  'sobriety,' 
which  includes  not  only  what  we  mean  by  sober-mind- 
edness, but  self-government;  and  this  aspect  of  the 
apostolic  exhortation  opens  out  into  the  thought  that 
the  gifts,  which  a  just  estimate  of  ourselves  pronounces 
us  to  possess,  need  to  be  kept  bright  by  the  continual 
suppression  of  the  mind  of  the  flesh,  by  putting  down 
earthly  desires,  by  guarding  against  a  selfish  use  of 
them,  by  preventing  them  by  rigid  control  from  be- 
coming disproportioned  and  our  masters.  All  the  gifts 
which  Christ  bestows  upon  His  people  He  bestows  on 
condition  that  they  bind  them  together  by  the  golden 
chain  of  self-control. 


MANY  AND  ONE 

'  For  we  haye  many  members  in  one  body,  and  all  members  have  not  the  same 
office  :  5.  So  we,  being  many,  are  one  body  in  Christ,  and  every  one  members  one 
of  another.'— Romans  xii.  4,  5. 

To  Paul  there  was  the  closest  and  most  vital  connection 
between  the  profoundest  experiences  of  the  Christian 
life  and  its  plainest  and  most  superficial  duties.  Here 
he  lays  one  of  his  most  mystical  conceptions  as  the  very 
foundation  on  which  to  rear  the  great  structure  of 
Christian  conduct,  and  links  on  to  one  of  his  pro- 
foundest thoughts,  the  unity  of  all  Christians  in  Christ, 


246        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS   [ch.  xii. 

a  comprehensive  series  of  practical  exhortations.  We 
are  accustomed  to  hear  from  many  lips  :  *  I  have  no  use 
for  these  dogmas  that  Paul  delights  in.  Give  me  his 
practical  teaching.  You  may  keep  the  Epistle  to  the 
Romans,  I  hold  by  the  thirteenth  of  First  Corinthians.' 
But  such  an  unnatural  severance  between  the  doctrine 
and  the  ethics  of  the  Epistle  cannot  be  effected  without 
the  destruction  of  both.  The  very  principle  of  this 
Epistle  to  the  Romans  is  that  the  difference  between  the 
law  and  the  Gospel  is,  that  the  one  preaches  conduct 
without  a  basis  for  it,  and  that  the  other  says,  First 
believe  in  Christ,  and  in  the  strength  of  that  belief,  do 
the  right  and  be  like  Him.  Here,  then,  in  the  very 
laying  of  the  foundation  for  conduct  in  these  verses  we 
have  in  concrete  example  the  secret  of  the  Christian 
way  of  making  good  men. 

I.  The  first  point  to  notice  here  is,  the  unity  of  the 
derived  life.  Many  are  one,  because  they  are  each  in 
Christ,  and  the  individual  relationship  and  derivation 
of  life  from  Him  makes  them  one  whilst  continuing  to 
be  many.  That  great  metaphor,  and  nowadays  much 
forgotten  and  neglected  truth,  is  to  Paul's  mind  the 
fact  which  ought  to  mould  the  whole  life  and  conduct 
of  individual  Christians  and  to  be  manifested  therein. 
There  are  three  most  significant  and  instructive  symbols 
by  which  the  unity  of  believers  in  Christ  Jesus  is  set 
forth  in  the  New  Testament.  Our  Lord  Himself  gives 
us  the  one  of  the  vine  and  its  branches,  and  that 
symbol  suggests  the  silent,  effortless  process  by  which 
the  life-giving  sap  rises  and  finds  its  way  from  the 
deep  root  to  the  furthest  tendril  and  the  far-extended 
growth.  The  same  symbol  loses  indeed  in  one  respect 
its  value  if  we  transfer  it  to  growths  more  congenial  to 
our  northern  climate,  and  instead  of  the  vine  with  its 


vs.  4, 5]  MANY  AND  ONE  247 

rich  clusters,  think  of  some  great  elm,  deeply  rooted, 
and  with  its  firm  bole  and  massive  branches,  through 
all  of  which  the  mystery  of  a  common  life  penetrates 
and  makes  every  leaf  in  the  cloud  of  foliage  through 
which  we  look  up  participant  of  itself.  But,  profound 
and  beautiful  as  our  Lord's  metaphor  is,  the  vegetative 
uniformity  of  parts  and  the  absence  of  individual  charac- 
teristics make  it,  if  taken  alone,  insufficient.  In  the 
tree  one  leaf  is  like  another  ;  it  '  grows  green  and  broad 
and  takes  no  care.'  Hence,  to  express  the  whole  truth 
of  the  union  between  Christ  and  us  we  must  bring  in 
other  figures.  Thus  we  find  the  Apostle  adducing  the 
marriage  tie,  the  highest  earthly  example  of  union, 
founded  on  choice  and  affection.  But  even  that  sacred 
bond  leaves  a  gap  between  those  who  are  knit  together 
by  it ;  and  so  we  have  the  conception  of  our  text,  the 
unity  of  the  body  as  representing  for  us  the  unity  of 
believers  with  Jesus.  This  is  a  unity  of  life.  He  is  not 
only  head  as  chief  and  sovereign,  but  He  is  soul  or  life, 
which  has  its  seat,  not  in  this  or  that  organ  as  old 
physics  teach,  but  pervades  the  whole  and  '  fiUeth  all  in 
all.'  The  mystery  which  concerns  the  union  of  soul  and 
body,  and  enshrouds  the  nature  of  physical  life,  is  part 
of  the  felicity  of  this  symbol  in  its  Christian  applica- 
tion. That  commonest  of  all  :hings,  the  mysterious 
force  which  makes  matter  live  and  glow  under  spiritual 
emotion,  and  changes  the  vibrations  of  a  nerve,  or  the 
undulations  of  the  grey  brain,  into  hope  and  love  and 
faith,  eludes  the  scalpel  and  the  microscope.  Of  man 
in  his  complex  nature  it  is  true  that '  clouds  and  dark- 
ness are  round  about  him,'  and  we  may  expect  an 
equally  solemn  mystery  to  rest  upon  that  which  makes 
out  of  separate  individuals  one  living  body,  animated 
with  the  life  and  moved  by  the  Spirit  of  the  indwelling 


248        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS   [ch.xii. 

Christ.  We  can  get  no  further  back,  and  dig  no  deeper 
down,  than  His  own  words,  '  I  am  .  .  .  the  life.' 

But,  though  this  unity  is  mysterious,  it  is  most  real. 
Every  Christian  soul  receives  from  Christ  the  life  of 
Christ.  There  is  a  real  implantation  of  a  higher  nature 
which  has  nothing  to  do  with  sin  and  is  alien  from 
death.  There  is  a  true  regeneration  which  is  super- 
natural, and  which  makes  all  who  possess  it  one,  in  the 
measure  of  their  possession,  as  truly  as  all  the  leaves 
on  a  tree  are  one  because  fed  by  the  same  sap,  or  all 
the  members  in  the  natural  body  are  one,  because 
nourished  by  the  same  blood.  So  the  true  bond  of 
Christian  unity  lies  in  the  common  participation  of  the 
one  Lord,  and  the  real  Christian  unity  is  a  unity  of 
derived  life. 

The  misery  and  sin  of  the  Christian  Church  have  been, 
and  are,  that  it  has  sought  to  substitute  other  bonds  of 
unity.  The  whole  weary  history  of  the  divisions  and 
alienations  between  Christians  has  surely  sufficiently, 
and  more  than  sufficiently,  shown  the  failure  of  the 
attempts  to  base  Christian  oneness  upon  uniformity  of 
opinion,  or  of  ritual,  or  of  purpose.  The  difference 
between  the  real  unity,  and  these  spurious  attempts 
after  it,  is  the  difference  between  bundles  of  faggots, 
dead  and  held  together  by  a  cord,  and  a  living  tree 
lifting  its  multitudinous  foliage  towards  the  heavens. 
The  bundle  of  faggots  may  be  held  together  in  some 
sort  of  imperfect  union,  but  is  no  exhibition  of  unity. 
If  visible  churches  must  be  based  on  some  kind  of 
agreement,  they  can  never  cover  the  same  ground  as 
that  of  *  the  body  of  Christ.' 

That  oneness  is  independent  of  our  organisations, 
and  even  of  our  will,  since  it  comes  from  the  common 
possession  of   a  common   life.     Its   enemies  are  not 


vs.  4,  5]  MANY  AND  ONE  249 

divergent  opinions  or  forms,  but  the  evil  tempers  and 
dispositions  which  impede,  or  prevent,  the  flov7  into 
each  Christian  soul  of  the  uniting  'Spirit  of  life  in 
Christ  Jesus '  which  makes  the  many  who  may  be 
gathered  into  separate  folds  one  flock  clustered  around 
the  one  Shepherd.  And  if  that  unity  be  thus  a  funda- 
mental fact  in  the  Christian  life  and  entirely  apart  from 
external  organisation,  the  true  way  to  increase  it  in 
each  individual  is,  plainly,  the  drawing  nearer  to  Him, 
and  the  opening  of  our  spirits  so  as  to  receive  fuller, 
deeper,  and  more  continuous  inflows  from  His  own 
inexhaustible  fullness.  In  the  old  Temple  stood  the 
seven-branched  candlestick,  an  emblem  of  a  formal 
unity ;  in  the  new  the  seven  candlesticks  are  one,  be- 
cause Christ  stands  in  the  midst.  He  makes  the  body 
one ;  without  Him  it  is  a  carcase. 

II.  The  diversity. 

'We  have  many  members  in  one  body,  but  all 
members  have  not  the  same  ofiice.'  Life  has  different 
functions  in  different  organs.  It  is  light  in  the  eye> 
force  in  the  arm,  music  on  the  tongue,  swiftness  in  the 
foot ;  so  also  is  Christ.  The  higher  a  creature  rises  in 
the  scale  of  life,  the  more  are  the  parts  differentiated. 
The  lowest  is  a  mere  sac,  which  performs  all  the  func- 
tions that  the  creature  requires ;  the  highest  is  a  man 
with  a  multitude  of  organs,  each  of  which  is  definitely 
limited  to  one  office.  In  like  manner  the  division  of 
labour  in  society  measures  its  advance;  and  in  like 
manner  in  the  Church  there  is  to  be  the  widest  diver- 
sity. What  the  Apostle  designates  as  *  gifts '  are 
natural  characteristics  heightened  by  the  Spirit  of 
Christ ;  the  effect  of  the  common  life  in  each  ought  to 
be  the  intensifying  and  manifestation  of  individuality 
of  character.    In  the  Christian  ideal  of  humanity  there 


250        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS   [ch.  xn. 

is  place  for  every  variety  of  gifts.  The  flora  of  the 
Mountain  of  God  yields  an  endless  multiplicity  of 
growths  on  its  ascending  slopes  which  pass  through 
every  climate.  There  ought  to  be  a  richer  diversity  in 
the  Church  than  anywhere  besides ;  that  tree  should 
'  bear  twelve  manner  of  fruits,  yielding  its  fruit  every 
month  for  the  healing  of  the  nations.'  '  All  flesh  is  not 
the  same  flesh.'    '  Star  differeth  from  star  in  glory.' 

The  average  Christian  life  of  to-day  sorely  fails  in 
two  things  :  in  being  true  to  itself,  and  in  tolerance  of 
diversities.  We  are  all  so  afraid  of  being  ticketed  as 
'  eccentric,' '  odd,'  that  we  oftentimes  stifle  the  genuine 
impulses  of  the  Spirit  of  Christ  leading  us  to  the 
development  of  unfamiliar  types  of  goodness,  and  the 
undertaking  of  unrecognised  forms  of  service.  If  we 
trusted  in  Christ  in  ourselves  more,  and  took  our  laws 
from  His  whispers,  we  should  often  reach  heights  of 
goodness  which  tower  above  us  now,  and  discover  in 
ourselves  capacities  which  slumber  undiscerned.  There 
is  a  dreary  monotony  and  uniformity  amongst  us  which 
impoverishes  us,  and  weakens  the  testimony  that  we 
bear  to  the  quickening  influence  of  the  Spirit  that  is 
in  Christ  Jesus ;  and  we  all  tend  to  look  very  suspici- 
ously at  any  man  who  'puts  all  the  others  out'  by 
being  himself,  and  letting  the  life  that  he  draws  from 
the  Lord  dictate  its  own  manner  of  expression.  It 
would  breathe  a  new  life  into  all  our  Christian  com- 
munities if  we  allowed  full  scope  to  the  diversities  of 
operation,  and  realised  that  in  them  all  there  was  the 
one  Spirit.  The  world  condemns  originality:  the  Church 
should  have  learned  to  prize  it.  'One  after  this  fashion, 
and  one  after  that,'  is  the  only  wholesome  law  of  the 
development  of  the  manifold  graces  of  the  Christian  life. 

III.  The  harmony. 


vs.  4, 5]  MANY  AND  ONE  251 

•  We  being  many  are  one  body  in  Christ,  and  every 
one  members  one  of  another.'  That  expression  is 
remarkable,  for  we  might  have  expected  to  read  rather 
members  of  the  body,  than  of  each  other ;  but  the  bring- 
ing in  of  such  an  idea  suggests  most  emphatically  that 
thought  of  the  mutual  relation  of  each  part  of  the 
great  whole,  and  that  each  has  offices  to  discharge 
for  the  benefit  of  each.  In  the  Christian  community, 
as  in  an  organised  body,  the  active  co-operation  of  all 
the  parts  is  the  condition  of  health.  All  the  rays  into 
which  the  spectrum  breaks  up  the  pure  white  light 
must  be  gathered  together  again  in  order  to  produce 
it;  just  as  every  instrument  in  the  great  orchestra 
contributes  to  the  volume  of  sound.  The  Lancashire 
hand-bell  ringers  may  illustrate  this  point  for  us. 
Each  man  picks  up  his  own  bell  from  the  table  and 
sounds  his  own  note  at  the  moment  prescribed  by  the 
score,  and  so  the  whole  of  the  composer's  idea  is  repro- 
duced. To  suppress  diversities  results  in  monotony; 
to  combine  them  is  the  only  sure  way  to  secure  har- 
mony. Nor  must  we  forget  that  the  indwelling  life  of 
the  Church  can  only  be  manifested  by  the  full  exhibi- 
tion and  freest  possible  play  of  all  the  forms  which 
that  life  assumes  in  individual  character.  It  needs  all, 
and  more  than  all,  the  types  of  mental  characteristics 
that  can  be  found  in  humanity  to  mirror  the  infinite 
beauty  of  the  indwelling  Lord.  '  There  are  diversities 
of  operations,'  and  all  those  diversities  but  partially 
represent  that  same  Lord  '  who  worketh  all  in  all,'  and 
Himself  is  more  than  all,  and,  after  all  manifestation 
through  human  characters,  remains  hinted  at  rather 
than  declared,  suggested  but  not  revealed. 

Still  further,  only  by  the  exercise  of  possible 
diversities  is  the  one  body  nourished,  for  each  member, 


252        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS    [ch.  xii. 

drawing  life  directly  and  without  the  intervention  of 
any  other  from  Christ  the  Source,  draws  also  from  his 
fellow-Christian  some  form  of  the  common  life  that 
to  himself  is  unfamiliar,  and  needs  human  interven- 
tion in  order  to  its  reception.  Such  dependence  upon 
one's  brethren  is  not  inconsistent  with  a  primal  depend- 
ence on  Christ  alone,  and  is  a  safeguard  against  the 
cultivating  of  one's  own  idiosyncrasies  till  they  become 
diseased  and  disproportionate.  The  most  slenderly 
endowed  Christian  soul  has  the  double  charge  of  giving 
to,  and  receiving  from,  its  brethren.  We  have  all 
something  which  we  can  contribute  to  the  general 
stock.  "We  have  all  need  to  supplement  our  own 
peculiar  gifts  by  brotherly  ministration.  The  prime 
condition  of  Christian  vitality  has  been  set  forth  for 
ever  by  the  gracious  invitation,  which  is  also  an 
imperative  command,  '  Abide  in  Me  and  I  in  you  ' ;  but 
they  who  by  such  abiding  are  recipients  of  a  communi- 
cated life  are  not  thereby  isolated,  but  united  to  all 
who  like  them  have  received  *  the  manifestation  of  the 
Spirit  to  do  good  with.' 


GRACE  AND  GRACES 

'  Having  then  gifts,  differing  according  to  the  grace  that  is  given  to  us,  whether 
prophecy,  let  us  prophesy  according  to  the  proportion  of  faith ;  7.  Or  ministry,  let 
us  wait  on  our  ministering  ;  or  he  that  teacheth,  on  teaching ;  8.  Or  he  that  ex- 
horteth,  on  exhortation ;  he  that  giveth,  let  him  do  it  with  simplicity ;  he  that 
ruleth,  with  diligence ;  he  that  showeth  mercy,  with  cheerfulness.'— Romans 
xii.  6-8. 

The  Apostle  here  proceeds  to  build  upon  the  great 
thought  of  the  unity  of  believers  in  the  one  body  a 
series  of  practical  exhortations.  In  the  first  words  of 
our  text,  he,  with  characteristic  delicacy,  identifies 
himself  with  the  Roman  Christians  as  a  recipient,  like 


vs.  6-8]  GRACE  AND  GRACES  253 

them,  of  *  the  grace  that  is  given  to  us,'  and  as,  there- 
fore, subject  to  the  same  precepts  which  he  commends 
to  them.  He  does  not  stand  isolated  by  the  grace  that 
is  given  to  him  ;  nor  does  he  look  down  as  from  the 
height  of  his  apostleship  on  the  multitude  below,  say- 
ing to  them,— Go.  As  one  of  themselves  he  stands 
amongst  them,  and  with  brotherly  exhortation  says, — 
Come.  If  that  had  been  the  spirit  in  which  all 
Christian  teachers  had  besought  men,  their  exhorta- 
tions would  less  frequently  have  been  breath  spent 
in  vain. 

We  may  note 

I.  The  grace  that  gives  the  gifts. 

The  connection  between  these  two  is  more  emphati- 
cally suggested  by  the  original  Greek,  in  which  the 
word  for  '  gifts '  is  a  derivative  of  that  for  •  grace.'  The 
relation  between  these  two  can  scarcely  be  verbally 
reproduced  in  English ;  but  it  may  be,  though  imper- 
fectly, suggested  by  reading  '  graces '  instead  of  '  gifts.* 
The  gifts  are  represented  as  being  the  direct  product 
of,  and  cognate  with,  the  grace  bestowed.  As  we 
have  had  already  occasion  to  remark,  they  are  in 
Paul's  language  a  designation  of  natural  capacities 
strengthened  by  the  access  of  the  life  of  the  Spirit  of 
Christ.  As  a  candle  plunged  in  a  vase  of  oxygen  leaps 
up  into  more  brilliant  flame,  so  all  the  faculties  of 
the  human  soul  are  made  a  hundred  times  themselves 
when  the  quickening  power  of  the  life  of  Christ 
enters  into  them. 

It  is  to  be  observed  that  the  Apostle  here  assumes 
that  every  Christian  possesses,  in  some  form,  that 
grace  which  gives  graces.  To  him  a  believing  soul 
without  Christ-given  gifts  is  a  monstrosity.  No  one  is 
without  some  graces,  and  therefore  no  one  is  without 


254        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS   [ch.xii. 

some  duties.  No  one  who  considers  the  multitude 
of  professing  Christians  who  hamper  all  our  churches 
to-day,  and  reflects  on  the  modern  need  to  urge 
on  the  multitude  of  idlers  forms  of  Christian  activity, 
will  fail  to  recognise  signs  of  terribly  weakened 
vitality.  The  humility,  which  in  response  to  all  invita- 
tions to  work  for  Christ  pleads  unfitness  is,  if  true, 
more  tragical  than  it  at  first  seems,  for  it  is  a  con- 
fession that  the  man  who  alleges  it  has  no  real  hold 
of  the  Christ  in  whom  he  professes  to  trust.  If  a 
Christian  man  is  fit  for  no  Christian  work,  it  is  time 
that  he  gravely  ask  himself  whether  he  has  any 
Christian  life.  '  Having  gifts '  is  the  basis  of  all  the 
Apostle's  exhortations.  It  is  to  him  inconceivable  that 
any  Christian  should  not  possess,  and  be  conscious  of 
possessing,  some  endowment  from  the  life  of  Christ 
which  will  fit  him  for,  and  bind  him  to,  a  course  of 
active  service. 

The  universality  of  this  possession  is  affirmed,  if 
we  note  that,  according  to  the  Greek,  it  was  *  given ' 
at  a  special  time  in  the  experience  of  each  of  these 
Roman  Christians.  The  rendering  *  was  given '  might 
be  more  accurately  exchanged  for  'has  been  given,' 
and  that  expression  is  best  taken  as  referring  to 
a  definite  moment  in  the  history  of  each  believer 
namely,  his  conversion.  When  we  'yield  ourselves 
to  God,'  as  Paul  exhorts  us  to  do  in  the  beginning 
of  this  chapter,  as  the  commencement  of  all  true 
life  of  conformity  to  His  will,  Christ  yields  Himself 
to  us.  The  possession  of  these  gifts  of  grace  is  no 
prerogative  of  officials;  and,  indeed,  in  all  the  ex- 
hortations which  follow  there  is  no  reference  to 
officials,  though  of  course  such  were  in  existence  in  the 
Roman  Church.    They  had  their  special  functions  and 


vs.  6-8]  GRACE  AND  GRACES  255 

special  qualifications  for  these.  But  what  Paul  is 
dealing  with  now  is  the  grace  that  is  inseparable  from 
individual  surrender  to  Christ,  and  has  been  bestowed 
upon  all  who  are  His.  To  limit  the  gifts  to  officials, 
and  to  suppose  that  the  universal  gifts  in  any  degree 
militate  against  the  recognition  of  officials  in  the 
Church,  are  equally  mistakes,  and  confound  essentially 
different  subjects. 

II.  The  graces  that  flow  from  the  grace. 

The  Apostle's  catalogue  of  these  is  not  exhaustive, 
nor  logically  arranged;  but  yet  a  certain  loose  order 
may  be  noted,  which  may  be  profitable  for  us  to  trace. 
They  are  in  number  seven — the  sacred  number ;  and 
are  capable  of  being  divided,  as  so  many  of  the  series 
of  sevens  are,  into  two  portions,  one  containing  four 
and  the  other  three.  The  former  include  more  public 
works,  to  each  of  which  a  man  might  be  specially 
devoted  as  his  life  work  for  and  in  the  Church.  Three 
are  more  private,  and  may  be  conceived  to  have  a 
wider  relation  to  the  world.  There  are  some  difficul- 
ties of  construction  and  rendering  in  the  list,  which 
need  not  concern  us  here ;  and  we  may  substantially 
follow  the  Authorised  Version. 

The  first  group  of  four  seems  to  fall  into  two  pairs, 
the  first  of  which,  '  prophecy '  and  '  ministry,'  seem 
to  be  bracketed  together  by  reason  of  the  difference 
between  them.  Prophecy  is  a  very  high  form  of 
special  inspiration,  and  implies  a  direct  reception  of 
special  revelation,  but  not  necessarily  of  future  events. 
The  prophet  is  usually  coupled  in  Paul's  writings  with 
the  apostle,  and  was  obviously  amongst  those  to  whom 
was  given  one  of  the  highest  forms  of  the  gifts  of 
Christ.  It  is  very  beautiful  to  note  that  by  natural  con- 
trast the  Apostle  at  once  passes  to  one  of  the  forms  of 


256        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS    [ch.  xii. 

service  which  a  vulgar  estimate  would  regard  as 
remotest  from  the  special  revelation  of  the  prophet, 
and  is  confined  to  lowly  service.  Side  by  side  with  the 
exalted  gift  of  prophecy  Paul  puts  the  lowly  gift  of 
ministry.  Very  significant  is  the  juxtaposition  of 
these  two  extremes.  It  teaches  us  that  the  lowliest 
office  is  as  truly  allotted  by  Jesus  as  the  most  sacred, 
and  that  His  highest  gifts  find  an  adequate  field  for 
manifestation  in  him  who  is  servant  of  all.  Ministry 
to  be  rightly  discharged  needs  spiritual  character. 
The  original  seven  were  men  '  full  of  faith  and  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,'  though  all  they  had  to  do  was  to  hand 
their  pittances  to  poor  widows.  It  may  be  difficult  to 
decide  for  what  reason  other  than  the  emphasising  of 
this  contrast  the  Apostle  links  together  ministry  and 
prophecy,  and  so  breaks  a  natural  sequence  which 
would  have  connected  the  second  pair  of  graces  with 
the  first  member  of  the  first  pair.  We  should  have 
expected  that  here,  as  elsewhere,  '  prophet,'  *  teacher,' 
exhorter,'  would  have  been  closely  connected,  and 
there  seems  no  reason  why  they  should  not  have  been 
so,  except  that  which  we  have  suggested,  namely,  the 
wish  to  bring  together  the  highest  and  the  lowest 
forms  of  service. 

The  second  pair  seem  to  be  linked  together  by  like- 
ness. The  '  teacher '  probably  had  for  his  function, 
primarily,  the  narration  of  the  facts  of  the  Gospel,  and 
the  setting  forth  in  a  form  addressed  chiefly  to  the 
understanding  the  truths  thereby  revealed ;  whilst  the 
'  exhorter '  rather  addressed  himself  to  the  will,  pre- 
senting the  same  truth,  but  in  forms  more  intended 
to  influence  the  emotions.  The  word  here  rendered 
'  exhort '  is  found  in  Paul's  writings  as  bearing  special 
meanings,  such  as  consoling,  stimulating,  encouraging, 


vs.  6-8]  GRACE  AND  GRACES  257 

rebuking  and  others.  Of  course  these  two  forms  of 
service  would  often  be  associated,  and  each  would  be 
imperfect  when  alone  ;  but  it  would  appear  that  in 
the  early  Church  there  were  persons  in  whom  the  one 
or  the  other  of  these  two  elements  was  so  pre- 
ponderant that  their  office  was  thereby  designated. 
Each  received  a  special  gift  from  the  one  Source.  The 
man  who  could  only  say  to  his  brother,  *  Be  of  good 
cheer,'  was  as  much  the  recipient  of  the  Spirit  as  the 
man  who  could  connect  and  elaborate  a  systematic 
presentation  of  the  truths  of  the  Gospel. 

These  four  graces  are  followed  by  a  group  of  three, 
which  may  be  regarded  as  being  more  private,  as  not 
pointing  to  permanent  offices  so  much  as  to  individual 
acts.  They  are  *  giving,'  '  ruling,'  '  showing  pity,'  con- 
cerning which  we  need  only  note  that  the  second  of 
these  can  hardly  be  the  ecclesiastical  office,  and  that  it 
stands  between  two  which  are  closely  related,  as  if  it 
were  of  the  same  kind.  The  gifts  of  money,  or  of 
direction,  or  of  pity,  are  one  in  kind.  The  right  use  of 
wealth  comes  from  the  gift  of  God's  grace ;  so  does  the 
right  use  of  any  sway  which  any  of  us  have  over  any 
of  our  brethren  ;  and  so  does  the  glow  of  compassion, 
the  exercise  of  the  natural  human  sympathy  which 
belongs  to  all,  and  is  deepened  and  made  tenderer  and 
intenser  by  the  gift  of  the  Spirit.  It  would  be  a  very 
different  Church,  and  a  very  different  world,  if  Chris- 
tians, who  were  not  conscious  of  possessing  gifts  which 
made  them  fit  to  be  either  prophets,  or  teachers,  or 
exhorters,  and  were  scarcely  endowed  even  for  any 
special  form  of  ministry,  felt  that  a  gift  from  their 
hands,  or  a  wave  of  pity  from  their  hearts,  was  a  true 
token  of  the  movement  of  God's  Spirit  on  their  spirits. 
The  fruit  of  the  Spirit  is  to  be  found  in   the  wide 

B 


258        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS   [ch.  xii. 

fields  of  everyday  life,  and  the  vine  bears  many  clusters 
for  the  thirsty  lips  of  wearied  men  who  may  little 
know  what  gives  them  their  bloom  and  sweetness. 
It  would  be  better  for  both  giver  and  receiver  if 
Christian  beneficence  were  more  clearly  recognised  as 
one  of  the  manifestations  of  spiritual  life. 

III.  The  exercise  of  the  graces. 

There  are  some  difficulties  in  reference  to  the  gram- 
matical construction  of  the  words  of  our  text,  into 
which  it  is  not  necessary  that  we  should  enter  here. 
We  may  substantially  follow  the  Authorised  and 
Revised  Versions  in  supplying  verbs  in  the  various 
clauses,  so  as  to  make  of  the  text  a  series  of  exhorta- 
tions. The  first  of  these  is  to  '  prophesy  according  to 
the  proportion  of  faith';  a  commandment  which  is 
best  explained  by  remembering  that  in  the  preceding 
verse  '  the  measure  of  faith '  has  been  stated  as  being 
the  measure  of  the  gifts.  The  prophet  then  is  to 
exercise  his  gifts  in  proportion  to  his  faith.  He  is  to 
speak  his  convictions  fully  and  openly,  and  to  let  his 
utterances  be  shaped  by  the  indwelling  life.  This 
exhortation  may  well  sink  into  the  heart  of  preachers 
in  this  day.  It  is  but  the  echo  of  Jeremiah's  strong 
words :  '  He  that  hath  my  word,  let  him  speak  my 
word  faithfully.  What  is  the  chaff  to  the  wheat? 
saith  the  Lord.  Is  not  my  word  like  as  fire,  saith  the 
Lord,  and  like  a  hammer  that  breaketh  the  rock  in 
pieces  ? '  The  ancient  prophet's  woe  falls  with  double 
weight  on  those  who  use  their  words  as  a  veil  to 
obscure  their  real  beliefs,  and  who  prophesy,  not 
*  according  to  the  proportion  of  faith,'  but  according  to 
the  expectations  of  the  hearers,  whose  faith  is  as 
vague  as  theirs. 

In  the  original,  the  next  three  exhortations  are  alike 


vs.  6-8]  GRACE  AND  GRACES  259 

in  grammatical  construction,  which  is  represented  in 
the  Authorised  Version  by  the  supplement '  let  us  wait 
on,'  and  in  the  Revised  Version  by  '  let  us  give  ourselves 
to ' ;  we  might  with  advantage  substitute  for  either 
the  still  more  simple  form  '  be  in,'  after  the  example  of 
Paul's  exhortation  to  Timothy  'be  in  these  things'; 
that  is,  as  our  Version  has  it,  '  give  thyself  wholly  to 
them.'  The  various  gifts  are  each  represented  as  a 
sphere  within  which  its  possessor  is  to  move,  for  the 
opportunities  for  the  exercise  of  which  he  is  carefully 
to  watch,  and  within  the  limits  of  which  he  is  humbly 
to  keep.  That  general  law  applies  equally  to  ministry, 
and  teaching  and  exhorting.  We  are  to  seek  to  discern 
our  spheres ;  we  are  to  be  occupied  with,  if  not 
absorbed  in,  them.  At  the  least  we  are  diligently  to 
use  the  gift  which  we  discover  ourselves  to  possess, 
and  thus  filling  our  several  spheres,  we  are  to  keep 
within  them,  recognising  that  each  is  sacred  as  the 
manifestation  of  God's  will  for  each  of  us.  The 
divergence  of  forms  is  unimportant,  and  it  matters 
nothing  whether  '  the  Giver  of  all '  grants  less  or  more. 
'Che  main  thing  is  that  each  be  faithful  in  the  adminis- 
tration of  what  he  has  received,  and  not  seek  to 
iaaitate  his  brother  who  is  diversely  endowed,  or  to 
monopolise  for  himself  another's  gifts.  To  insist  that 
oXiT  brethren's  gifts  should  be  like  ours,  and  to  try  to 
mi,ke  ours  like  theirs,  are  equally  sins  against  the 
great  truth,  of  which  the  Church  as  a  whole  is  the 
example,  that  there  are  '  diversities  of  operations  but 
the  same  Spirit.' 

Tte  remaining  three  exhortations  are  in  like  manner 

thrown  together  by  a   similarity  of  construction  in 

wK^h  the  personality  of  the  doer  is  put  in  the  fore- 

.Aftec^jj^  and  the  emphasis  of  the    commandment  is 


260        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.  xii. 

rested  on  the  manner  in  which  the  grace  is  exercised. 
The  reason  for  that  may  be  that  in  these  three  especially 
the  manner  will  show  the  grace.  '  Giving '  is  to  be 
'  with  simplicity.'  There  are  to  be  no  sidelong  looks  to 
self-interest ;  no  flinging  of  a  gift  from  a  height,  as  a 
bone  might  be  flung  to  a  dog ;  no  seeking  for  gratitude ; 
no  ostentation  in  the  gift.  Any  taint  of  such  mixed 
motives  as  these  infuses  poison  into  our  gifts,  and 
makes  them  taste  bitter  to  the  receiver,  and  recoil 
in  hurt  upon  ourselves.  To  'give  with  simplicity'  is 
to  give  as  God  gives. 

'Diligence'  is  the  characteristic  prescribed  for  the 
man  that  rules.  We  have  already  pointed  out  that 
this  exhortation  includes  a  much  wider  area  than  that 
of  any  ecclesiastical  officials.  It  points  to  another 
kind  of  rule,  and  the  natural  gifts  needed  for  any  kind 
of  rule  are  diligence  and  zeal.  Slackly-held  reins  make 
stumbling  steeds ;  and  any  man  on  whose  shoulders  is 
laid  the  weight  of  government  is  bound  to  feel  it  as  a 
weight.  The  history  of  many  a  nation,  and  of  many  a 
family,  teaches  that  where  the  rule  is  slothful  all  evils 
grow  apace ;  and  it  is  that  natural  energy  and  earnest 
ness,  deepened  and  hallowed  by  the  Christian  life 
which  here  is  enjoined  as  the  true  Christian  way  o' 
discharging  the  function  of  ruling,  which,  in  some  forH 
or  another,  devolves  on  aln^ost  all  of  us. 

*  He  that  showeth  mercy  with  cheerfulness.'  Tne 
glow  of  natural  human  sympathy  is  heightened  so  a;  to 
become  a  '  gift,'  and  the  way  in  which  it  is  exercise  is 
defined  as  being  '  with  cheerfulness.'  That  injunctici  is 
but  partially  understood  if  it  is  taken  to  mean  no  i|ore 
than  that  sympathy  is  not  to  be  rendered  grudgiigly, 
or  as  by  necessity.  No  sympathy  is  indeed  pos  ble 
on  such  terms ;  unless  the  heart  is  in  it,  it  is  nc^  q^^. 


vs.  6  8]        LOVE  THAT  CAN  HATE  261 

And  that  it  should  thus  flow  forth  spontaneously 
wherever  sorrow  and  desolation  evoke  it,  there  must 
be  a  continual  repression  of  self,  and  a  heart  dis- 
engaged from  the  entanglements  of  its  own  circum- 
stances, and  at  leisure  to  make  a  brother's  burden  its 
very  own.  But  the  exhortation  may,  perhaps,  rather 
mean  that  the  truest  sympathy  carries  a  bright  face 
into  darkness,  and  comes  like  sunshine  in  a  shady 
place. 


LOVE  THAT  CAN  HATE 

'  Let  love  be  without  hypocrisy.  Abhor  that  which  is  evil ;  cleave  to  that  which 
is  good.  10.  In  love  of  the  brethren  be  tenderly  affectioned  one  to  another ;  in 
honour  preferring  one  another.'— Romans  xii.  9-10  (R.V.). 

Thus  far  the  Apostle  has  been  laying  down  very 
general  precepts  and  principles  of  Christian  morals. 
Starting  with  the  one  all-comprehensive  thought  of 
self-sacrifice  as  the  very  foundation  of  all  goodness,  of 
transformation  as  its  method,  and  of  the  clear  know- 
ledge of  our  several  powers  and  faithful  stewardship 
of  these,  as  its  conditions,  he  here  proceeds  to  a  series 
of  more  specific  exhortations,  which  at  first  sight  seem 
to  be  very  unconnected,  but  through  which  there  may 
be  discerned  a  sequence  of  thought. 

The  clauses  of  our  text  seem  at  first  sight  strangely 
disconnected.  The  first  and  the  last  belong  to  the  same 
subject,  but  the  intervening  clause  strikes  a  careless 
reader  as  out  of  place  and  heterogeneous.  I  think  that 
we  shall  see  it  is  not  so ;  but  for  the  present  we  but 
note  that  here  are  three  sets  of  precepts  which  enjoin, 
first,  honest  love ;  then,  next,  a  healthy  vehemence 
against  evil  and  for  good ;  and  finally,  a  brotherly 
affection  and  mutual  respect. 


262        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS    [ch.  xii. 

I.  Let  love  be  honest. 

Love  stands  at  the  head,  and  is  the  f ontal  source  of 
all  separate  individualised  duties.  Here  Paul  is  not  so 
much  prescribing  love  as  describing  the  kind  of  love 
which  he  recognises  as  genuine,  and  the  main  point  on 
which  he  insists  is  sincerity.  The  '  dissimulation '  of  the 
Authorised  Version  only  covers  half  the  ground.  It 
means,  hiding  what  one  is ;  but  there  is  simulation,  or 
pretending  to  be  what  one  is  not.  There  are  words  of 
love  which  are  like  the  iridescent  scum  on  the  surface 
veiling  the  black  depths  of  a  pool  of  hatred.  A 
Psalmist  complains  of  having  to  meet  men  whose 
words  were  *  smoother  than  butter '  and  whose  true 
feelings  were  as  '  drawn  swords ' ;  but,  short  of  such 
consciously  lying  love,  we  must  all  recognise  as  a  real 
danger  besetting  us  all,  and  especially  those  of  us  who 
are  naturally  inclined  to  kindly  relations  with  our 
fellows,  the  tendency  to  use  language  just  a  little  in 
excess  of  our  feelings.  The  glove  is  slightly  stretched, 
and  the  hand  in  it  is  not  quite  large  enough  to  fill  it. 
There  is  such  a  thing,  not  altogether  unknown  in 
Christian  circles,  as  benevolence,  which  is  largely  cant, 
and  words  of  conventional  love  about  individuals 
which  do  not  represent  any  corresponding  emotion. 
Such  effusive  love  pours  itself  in  words,  and  is  most 
generally  the  token  of  intense  selfishness.  Any  man 
who  seeks  to  make  his  words  a  true  picture  of  his 
emotions  must  be  aware  that  few  harder  precepts  have 
ever  been  given  than  this  brief  one  of  the  Apostle's, 
'Let  love  be  without  hypocrisy.' 

But  the  place  where  this  exhortation  comes  in  the 
apostolic  sequence  here  may  suggest  to  us  the  dis- 
cipline through  which  obedience  to  it  is  made  possible. 
There  is  little  to  be  done  by  the  way  of  directly  in- 


vs.  9, 10]      LOVE  THAT  CAN  HATE  263 

creasing  either  the  fervour  of  love  or  the  honesty  of 
its  expression.  The  true  method  of  securing  both  is 
to  be  growingly  transformed  by  '  the  renewing  of  our 
minds,'  and  growingly  to  bring  our  whole  old  selves 
under  the  melting  and  softening  influence  of  'the 
mercies  of  God.'  It  is  swollen  self-love,  '  thinking  more 
highly  of  ourselves  than  we  ought  to  think,'  which 
impedes  the  flow  of  love  to  others,  and  it  is  in  the 
measure  in  which  we  receive  into  our  minds  'the 
mind  that  was  in  Christ  Jesus,'  and  look  at  men  as  He 
did,  that  we  shall  come  to  love  them  all  honestly  and 
purely.  When  we  are  delivered  from  the  monstrous 
oppression  and  tyranny  of  self,  we  have  hearts  cap- 
able of  a  Christlike  and  Christ-giving  love  to  all  men, 
and  only  they  who  have  cleansed  their  hearts  by  union 
with  Him,  and  by  receiving  into  them  the  purging 
influence  of  His  own  Spirit,  will  be  able  to  love  without 
hypocrisy. 

II.  Let  love  abhor  what  is  evil,  and  cleave  to  what  is 
good. 

If  we  carefully  consider  this  apparently  irrelevant 
interruption  in  the  sequence  of  the  apostolic  exhorta- 
tions, we  shall,  I  think,  see  at  once  that  the  irrelevance 
is  only  apparent,  and  that  the  healthy  vehemence 
against  evil  and  resolute  clinging  to  good  is  as 
essential  to  the  noblest  forms  of  Christian  love  as 
is  the  sincerity  enjoined  in  the  previous  clause.  To 
detest  the  one  and  hold  fast  by  the  other  are  essential 
to  the  purity  and  depth  of  our  love.  Evil  is  to  be 
loathed,  and  good  to  be  clung  to  in  our  own  moral 
conduct,  and  wherever  we  see  them.  These  two  pre- 
cepts are  not  mere  tautology,  but  the  second  of  them 
is  the  ground  of  the  first.  The  force  of  our  recoil  from 
the  bad  will  be  measured  by  the  firmness  of  our  grasp 


264        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS    [ch.  xii. 

of  the  good;  and  yet,  though  inseparably  connected,  the 
one  is  apt  to  be  easier  to  obey  than  is  the  other.  There 
are  types  of  Christian  men  to  whom  it  is  more  natural 
to  abhor  the  evil  than  to  cleave  to  the  good ;  and  there 
are  types  of  character  of  which  the  converse  is  true. 
We  often  see  men  very  earnest  and  entirely  sincere  in 
their  detestation  of  meanness  and  wickedness,  but  very 
tepid  in  their  appreciation  of  goodness.  To  hate  is, 
unfortunately,  more  congenial  with  ordinary  charac- 
ters than  to  love ;  and  it  is  more  facile  to  look  down  on 
badness  than  to  look  up  at  goodness. 

But  it  needs  ever  to  be  insisted  upon,  and  never  more 
than  in  this  day  of  spurious  charity  and  unprincipled 
toleration,  that  a  healthy  hatred  of  moral  evil  and  of 
sin,  wherever  found  and  however  garbed,  ought  to  be 
the  continual  accompaniment  of  all  vigorous  and  manly 
cleaving  to  that  which  is  good.  Unless  we  shudder- 
ingly  recoil  from  contact  with  the  bad  in  our  own 
lives,  and  refuse  to  christen  it  with  deceptive  euphem- 
isms when  we  meet  it  in  social  and  civil  life,  we  shall 
but  feebly  grasp,  and  slackly  hold,  that  which  is  good. 
Such  energy  of  moral  recoil  from  evil  is  perfectly  con- 
sistent with  honest  love,  for  it  is  things,  not  men,  that 
we  are  to  hate ;  and  it  is  needful  as  the  completion  and 
guardian  of  love  itself.  There  is  always  danger  that 
love  shall  weaken  the  condemnation  of  wrong,  and 
modern  liberality,  both  in  the  field  of  opinion  and  in 
regard  to  practical  life,  has  so  far  condoned  evil  as 
largely  to  have  lost  its  hold  upon  good.  The  criminal 
is  pitied  rather  than  blamed,  and  a  multitude  of 
agencies  are  so  occupied  in  elevating  the  wrong-doers 
that  they  lose  sight  of  the  need  of  punishing. 

Nor  is  it  only  in  reference  to  society  that  this  tendency 
works  harm.  The  effect  of  it  is  abundantly  manifest  in 


▼s.  9, 10]       LOVE  THAT  CAN  HATE  265 

the  fashionable  ideas  of  God  and  His  character.  There 
are  whole  schools  of  opinion  which  practically  strike 
out  of  their  ideal  of  the  Divine  Nature  abhorrence  of 
evil,  and,  little  as  they  think  it,  are  thereby  fatally 
impoverishing  their  ideal  of  God,  and  making  it  im- 
possible to  understand  His  government  of  the  world. 
As  always,  so  in  this  matter,  the  authentic  revelation 
of  the  Divine  Nature,  and  the  perfect  pattern  for  the 
human  are  to  be  found  in  Jesus  Christ.  We  recall  that 
wonderful  incident,  when  on  His  last  approach  to 
Jerusalem,  rounding  the  shoulder  of  the  Mount  of 
Olives,  He  beheld  the  city,  gleaming  in  the  morning 
sunshine  across  the  valley,  and  forgetting  His  own 
sorrow,  shed  tears  over  its  approaching  desolation, 
which  yet  He  steadfastly  pronounced.  His  loathing  of 
evil  was  whole-souled  and  absolute,  and  equally  intense 
and  complete  was  His  cleaving  to  that  which  is  good. 
In  both,  and  in  the  harmony  between  them,  He  makes 
God  known,  and  prescribes  and  holds  forth  the  ideal 
of  perfect  humanity  to  men. 

III.  Let  sincere  and  discriminating  love  be  concen- 
trated on  Christian  men. 

In  the  final  exhortation  of  our  text '  the  love  of  the 
brethren'  takes  the  place  of  the  more  diffused  and 
general  love  enjoined  in  the  first  clause.  The  expres- 
sion 'kindly  affectioned'  is  the  rendering  of  a  very 
eloquent  word  in  the  original  in  which  the  instinctive 
love  of  a  mother  to  her  child,  or  the  strange  mystical 
ties  which  unite  members  of  a  family  together, 
irrespective  of  their  differences  of  character  and 
temperament,  are  taken  as  an  example  after  which 
Christian  men  are  to  mould  their  relations  to  one 
another.  The  love  which  is  without  hypocrisy,  and  is  to 
be  diffused  on  all  sides,  is  also  to  be  gathered  together 


266        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS    [ch.  xii. 

and  concentrated  with  special  energy  on  all  who  '  call 
upon  Jesus  Christ  as  Lord,  both  their  Lord  and  ours.' 
The  more  general  precept  and  the  more  particular  are 
in  perfect  harmony,  however  our  human  weakness 
sometimes  confuses  them.  It  is  obvious  that  this 
final  precept  of  our  text  will  be  the  direct  result  of 
the  two  preceding,  for  the  love  which  has  learned  to 
be  moral,  hating  evil,  and  clinging  to  good  as  necessary, 
when  directed  to  possessors  of  like  precious  faith  will 
thrill  with  the  consciousness  of  a  deep  mystical  bond 
of  union,  and  will  effloresce  in  all  brotherly  love  and 
kindly  affections.  They  who  are  like  one  another  in 
the  depths  of  their  moral  life,  who  are  touched  by  like 
aspirations  after  like  holy  things,  and  who  instinc- 
tively recoil  with  similar  revulsion  from  like  abomina- 
tions, will  necessarily  feel  the  drawing  of  a  unity  far 
deeper  and  sacreder  than  any  superficial  likenesses  of 
race,  or  circumstance,  or  opinion.  Two  men  who 
share,  however  imperfectly,  in  Christ's  Spirit  are 
more  akin  in  the  realities  of  their  nature,  however 
they  may  differ  on  the  surface,  than  either  of  them  is 
to  another,  however  like  he  may  seem,  who  is  not  a 
partaker  in  the  life  of  Christ. 

This  instinctive,  Christian  love,  like  all  true  and  pure 
love,  is  to  manifest  itself  by  '  preferring  one  another 
in  honour ' ;  or  as  the  word  might  possibly  be  rendered, 
'anticipating  one  another.'  We  are  not  to  wait  to 
have  our  place  assigned  before  we  give  our  brother 
his.  There  will  be  no  squabbling  for  the  chief  seat  in 
the  synagogue,  or  the  uppermost  rooms  at  the  feast, 
where  brotherly  love  marshals  the  guests.  The  one 
cure  for  petty  jealousies  and  the  miserable  strife  for 
recognition,  which  we  are  all  tempted  to  engage  in, 
lies  in  a  heart  filled  with  love  of  the  brethren  because 


V8.9,10]      A  TRIPLET  OF  GRACES  267 

of  its  love  to  the  Elder  Brother  of  them  all,  and  to  the 
Father  who  is  His  Father  as  well  as  ours.  What  a 
contrast  is  presented  between  the  practice  of  Christians 
and  these  precepts  of  Paul !  "We  may  well  bow  our- 
selves in  shame  and  contrition  when  wo  read  these 
clear-drawn  lines  indicating  what  we  ought  to  be, 
and  set  by  the  side  of  them  the  blurred  and  blotted 
pictures  of  what  we  are.  It  is  a  painful  but  profit- 
able task  to  measure  ourselves  against  Paul's  ideal  of 
Christ's  commandment ;  but  it  will  only  be  profitable 
if  it  brings  us  to  remember  that  Christ  gives 
before  He  commands,  and  that  conformity  with  His 
ideal  must  begin,  not  with  details  of  conduct,  or  with 
emotion,  however  pure,  but  with  yielding  ourselves  to 
the  God  who  moves  us  by  His  mercies,  and  being 
'  transformed  by  the  renewing  of  our  minds  '  and  *  the 
indwelling  of  Christ  in  our  hearts  by  faith.* 


A  TRIPLET  OF  GRACES 

'Not  slothful  in  business ;  fervent  in  spirit ;  serving  the  Lord.'— Romans  xil.  11. 

Paul  believed  that  Christian  doctrine  was  meant  to 
influence  Christian  practice ;  and  therefore,  after  the 
fundamental  and  profound  exhibition  of  the  central 
truths  of  Christianity  which  occupies  the  earlier  por- 
tion of  this  great  Epistle,  he  tacks  on,  with  a  '  there- 
fore' to  his  theological  exposition,  a  series  of  plain, 
practical  teachings.  The  place  where  conduct  comes 
in  in  the  letter  is  profoundly  significant,  and,  if  the 
significance  of  it  had  been  observed  and  the  spirit  of  it 
carried  into  practice,  there  would  have  been  less  of  a 
barren  orthodoxy,  and  fewer  attempts  at  producing 
righteous  conduct  without  faith. 


268        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS   [ch.xii. 

But  not  only  is  the  place  where  this  series  of  exhorta- 
tions occur  very  significant,  but  the  order  in  which 
they  appear  is  also  instructive.  The  great  principle 
which  covers  all  conduct,  and  may  be  broken  up  into 
all  the  minutenesses  of  practical  directions  is  self-sur- 
render. Give  yourselves  up  to  God  ;  that  is  the  Alpha 
and  the  Omega  of  all  goodness,  and  wherever  that 
foundation  is  really  laid,  on  it  will  rise  the  fair  build- 
ing of  a  life  which  is  a  temple,  adorned  with  whatever 
things  are  lovely  and  of  good  report.  So  after  Paul 
has  laid  deep  and  broad  the  foundation  of  all  Christian 
virtue  in  his  exhortation  to  present  ourselves  as  living 
sacrifices,  he  goes  on  to  point  out  the  several  virtues 
in  which  such  self-surrender  will  manifest  itself.  There 
runs  through  the  most  of  these  exhortations  an  arrange- 
ment in  triplets — three  sister  Graces  linked  together 
hand-in-hand  as  it  were — and  my  text  presents  an 
example  of  that  threefoldness  in  grouping.  'Not 
slothful  in  business ;  fervent  in  spirit;  serving  the  Lord.' 

I.  We  have,  first,  the  prime  grace  of  Christian 
diligence. 

'  Not  slothful  in  business '  suggests,  by  reason  of  our 
modern  restriction  of  that  word  *  business '  to  a  man's 
daily  occupation,  a  much  more  limited  range  to  this 
exhortation  than  the  Apostle  meant  to  give  it.  The 
idea  which  is  generally  drawn  from  these  words  by 
English  readers  is  that  they  are  to  do  their  ordinary 
work  diligently,  and,  all  the  while,  notwithstanding 
the  cooling  or  distracting  influences  of  their  daily 
a>  •  itious,  are  to  keep  themselves  'fervent  in  spirit.' 
That  is  a  noble  and  needful  conception  of  the  command, 
but  it  does  not  express  what  is  in  the  Apostle's  mind. 
He  does  not  mean  by  '  business '  a  trade  or  profession, 
or  daily  occupation.     But  the  word  means  'zeal'  or 


v.ll]  A  TRIPLET  OF  GRACES  269 

'earnestness.'  And  what  Paul  says  is  just  this — 'In 
regard  to  your  earnestness  in  all  directions,  see  that 
you  are  not  slothful.' 

The  force  and  drift  of  the  whole  precept  is  just  the 
exhortation  to  exercise  the  very  homely  virtue  of 
diligence,  which  is  as  much  a  condition  of  growth  and 
maturity  in  the  Christian  as  it  is  in  any  other  life. 
The  very  homeliness  and  obviousness  of  the  duty  causes 
us  often  to  lose  sight  of  its  imperativeness  and  neces- 
sity. 

Many  of  us,  if  we  would  sit  quietly  down  and  think 
of  how  we  go  about  our  '  business,'  as  we  call  it,  and  of 
how  we  go  about  our  Christian  life,  which  ought  to  be 
our  highest  business,  would  have  great  cause  for  being 
ashamed.  We  begin  the  one  early  in  the  morning,  we 
keep  hard  at  it  all  day,  our  eyes  are  wide  open  to  see 
any  opening  where  money  is  to  be  made;  that  is  all 
right.  We  give  our  whole  selves  to  our  work  whilst 
we  are  at  it;  that  is  as  it  should  be.  But  why  are 
there  not  the  same  concentration,  the  same  wide-awake- 
ness,  the  same  open-eyed  eagerness  to  find  out  ways  of 
advancement,  the  same  resolved  and  continuous  and 
all-comprehending  and  dominating  enthusiasm  about 
our  Christianity  as  there  is  about  our  shop,  or  our 
mill,  or  our  success  as  students  ?  Why  are  we  all  fire 
in  the  one  case  and  all  ice  in  the  other  ?  W  hy  do  we 
think  that  it  is  enough  to  lift  the  burden  that  Christ 
lays  upon  us  with  one  languid  finger,  and  to  put  our 
whole  hand,  or  rather,  as  the  prophet  says,  'both  hands 
earnestly,'  to  the  task  of  lifting  the  load  of  daily 
work  ?    '  In  your  earnestness  be  not  slothful.' 

Brethren,  that  is  a  very  homely  exhortation.  I 
wonder  how  many  of  us  can  say,  *  Lord !  I  have  heard, 
and  I  have  obeyed  Thy  precept.* 


270        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS    [ch.  xii. 

II.  Diligence  must  be  fed  by  a  fervent  spirit. 

The  word  translated  'fervent'  is  literally  boiling. 
The  metaphor  is  very  plain  and  intelligible.  The  spirit 
brought  into  contact  with  Christian  truth  and  with 
the  fire  of  the  Holy  Spirit  will  naturally  have  its 
temperature  raised,  and  will  be  moved  by  the  warm 
touch  as  heat  makes  water  in  a  pot  hung  above  a  fire 
boil.  Such  emotion,  produced  by  the  touch  of  the  fiery 
Spirit  of  God,  is  what  Paul  desires  for,  and  enjoins  on, 
all  Christians;  for  such  emotion  is  the  only  way  by 
which  the  diligence,  without  which  no  Christian  pro- 
gress will  be  made,  can  be  kept  up. 

No  man  will  work  long  at  a  task  that  his  heart  is 
not  in ;  or  if  he  does,  because  he  is  obliged,  the  work 
will  be  slavery.  In  order,  then,  that  diligence  may 
neither  languish  and  become  slothfulness,  nor  be  felt 
to  be  a  heavy  weight  and  an  unwelcome  necessity, 
Paul  here  bids  us  see  to  it  that  our  hearts  are  moved 
because  there  is  a  fire  below  which  makes  '  the  soul's 
depths  boil  in  earnest.' 

Now,  of  course,  I  know  that,  as  a  great  teacher  has 
told  us,  'The  gods  approve  the  depth  and  not  the 
tumult  of  the  soul,'  and  I  know  that  there  is  a  great 
deal  of  emotional  Christianity  which  is  worth  nothing. 
But  it  is  not  that  kind  of  fervour  that  the  Apostle  is 
enjoining  here.  Whilst  it  is  perfectly  true  that  mere 
emotion  often  does  co-exist  with,  and  very  often  leads 
to,  entire  negligence  as  to  possessing  and  manifesting 
practical  excellence,  the  true  relation  between  these  is 
just  the  opposite — viz.  that  this  fervour  of  which  I 
speak,  this  wide-awakeness  and  enthusiasm  of  a  spirit 
all  quickened  into  rapidity  of  action  by  the  warmth 
which  it  has  felt  from  God  in  Christ,  should  drive  the 
wheels  of  life.     Boiling  water  makes  steam,  does  it 


v.u]  A  TUil'i.Ji.i  ut   «^Aw^T>^cES  273 

not?  And  what  is  to  be  done  with  the  steam 
conies  off  the  '  boiling '  spirit  ?  You  may  either  let  it 
go  roaring  through  a  waste-pipe  and  do  nothing  but 
make  a  noise  and  be  idly  dissipated  in  the  air,  or  you 
may  lead  it  into  a  cylinder  and  make  it  lift  a  piston, 
and  then  you  will  get  work  out  of  it.  That  is  what  the 
Apostle  desires  us  to  do  with  our  emotion.  The  light- 
ning goes  careering  through  the  sky,  but  we  have 
harnessed  it  to  tram-cars  nowadays,  and  made  it  *  work 
for  its  living,'  to  carry  our  letters  and  light  our  rooms. 
Fervour  of  a  Christian  spirit  is  all  right  when  it  is 
yoked  to  Christian  work,  and  made  to  draw  what  else 
is  a  heavy  chariot.  It  is  not  emotion,  but  it  is  indolent 
emotion,  that  is  the  curse  of  much  of  our  'fervent' 
Christianity. 

There  cannot  be  too  much  fervour.  There  may  be 
too  little  outlet  provided  for  the  fervour  to  work  in. 
It  may  all  go  off  in  comfortable  feeling,  in  enthusiastic 
prayers  and  *  Amens ! '  and  *  So  be  it,  Lords  ! '  and  the 
like,  or  it  may  come  with  us  into  our  daily  tasks, 
and  make  us  buckle  to  with  more  earnestness,  and 
more  continuity.  Diligence  driven  by  earnestness, 
and  fervour  that  works,  are  the  true  things. 

And  surely,  surely  there  cannot  be  any  genuine 
Christianity  —  certainly  there  cannot  be  any  deep 
Christianity — which  is  not  fervent. 

We  hear  from  certain  quarters  of  the  Church  a  great 
deal  about  the  virtue  of  moderation.  But  it  seems  to 
me  that,  if  you  take  into  account  what  Christianity 
tells  us,  the  '  sober '  feeling  is  fervent  feeling,  and  tepid 
feeling  is  imperfect  feeling.  I  cannot  understand  any 
man  believing  as  plain  matter-of-fact  the  truths  on 
which  the  whole  New  Testament  insists,  and  keeping 
himself  'cool,'  or,  as  our  friends  call  it,   'moderate.' 


270        EPT^"^^^  '^^^  '^'HE  ROMANS    [ch.xii. 

T.chren,  enthusiasm — which  properly  means  the  con- 
dition of  being  dwelt  in  by  a  god — is  the  wise,  the 
reasonable  attitude  of  Christian  men,  if  they  believe 
their  own  Christianity  and  are  really  serving  Jesus 
Christ.  They  should  be  *  diligent  in  business,  fervent  * 
— boiling — in  spirit. 

III.  The  diligence  and  the  fervency  are  both  to  be 
animated  by  the  thought,  *  Serving  the  Lord  ! ' 

Some  critics,  as  many  of  you  know,  no  doubt,  would 
prefer  to  read  this  verse  in  its  last  clause  *  serving  the 
time.'  But  that  seems  to  me  a  very  lame  and  incom- 
plete climax  for  the  Apostle's  thought,  and  it  breaks 
entirely  the  sequence  which,  as  I  think,  is  discernible  in 
it.  Much  rather,  he  here,  in  the  closing  member  of  the 
triplet,  suggests  a  thought  which  will  be  stimulus  to  the 
diligence  and  fuel  to  the  fire  that  makes  the  spirit  boil. 

In  effect  he  says,  '  Think,  when  your  hands  begin  to 
droop,  and  when  your  spirits  begin  to  be  cold  and 
indifferent,  and  languor  to  steal  over  you,  and  the 
paralysing  influences  of  the  commonplace  and  the 
familiar,  and  the  small  begin  to  assert  themselves — 
think  that  you  are  serving  the  Lord.'  Will  that  not 
freshen  you  up  ?  Will  that  not  set  you  boiling  again  ? 
Will  it  not  be  easy  to  be  diligent  when  we  feel  that  we 
are  'ever  in  the  great  Taskmaster's  eye'?  There  are 
many  reasons  for  diligence — the  greatness  of  the  work, 
for  it  is  no  small  matter  for  us  to  get  the  whole  lump 
of  our  nature  leavened  with  the  good  leaven ;  the  con- 
tinual operation  of  antagonistic  forces  which  are  all 
round  us,  and  are  working  night-shifts  as  well  as  day 
ones,  whether  we  as  Christians  are  on  short  time  or 
not,  the  brevity  of  the  period  during  which  we  have  to 
work,  and  the  tremendous  issues  which  depend  upon 
the  completeness  of  our  service  here — all  these  things 


V.  11]  ANOTHER  TRIPLET  OF  GRACES   273 

are  reasons  for  our  diligence.  But  the  reason  is  : '  Thou 
Christ  hast  died  for  me,  and  livest  for  me ;  truly  I  am 
Thy  slave.'  That  is  the  thought  that  will  make  a  man 
bend  his  back  to  his  work,  whatever  it  be,  and  bend  his 
will  to  his  work,  too,  however  unwelcome  it  may  be  ; 
and  that  is  the  thought  that  will  stir  his  whole  spirit 
to  fervour  and  earnestness,  and  thus  will  deliver  him 
from  the  temptations  to  languid  and  perfunctory  work 
that  ever  creep  over  us. 

You  can  carry  that  motive — as  we  all  know,  and  as 
we  all  forget  when  the  pinch  comes — into  your  shop, 
your  study,  your  office,  your  mill,  your  kitchen,  or 
wherever  you  go.  'On  the  bells  of  the  horses  there 
shall  be  written,  Holiness  to  the  Lord,'  said  the  prophet, 
and  'every  bowl  in  Jerusalem'  may  be  sacred  as  the 
vessels  of  the  altar.  All  life  may  flash  into  beauty,  and 
lower  into  greatness,  and  be  smoothed  out  into  easiness, 
and  the  crooked  things  may  be  made  straight  and  the 
rough  places  plain,  and  the  familiar  and  the  trite  be 
invested  with  freshness  and  wonder  as  of  a  dream,  if 
only  we  write  over  them,  '  For  the  sake  of  the  Master.' 
Then,  whatever  we  do  or  bear,  be  it  common,  insignifi- 
cant, or  unpleasant,  will  change  its  aspect,  and  all  will 
be  sweet.  Here  is  the  secret  of  diligence  and  of  fervency, 
'  I  set  the  Lord  always  before  me.' 


ANOTHER  TRIPLET  OF  GRACES 

'Rejoicing  in  hope;  patient  in  tribulation;  continuing  instant  in  prayer.' 

Romans  xil.  12. 

These  three  closely  connected  clauses  occur,  as  you  all 
know,  in  the  midst  of  that  outline  of  the  Christian 
life  with  which  the  Apostle  begins  the  practical  part  of 


274        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS    [ch.xii. 

this  Epistle.  Now,  what  he  omits  in  this  sketch  of 
Christian  duty  seems  to  me  quite  as  significant  as  what 
he  inserts.  It  is  very  remarkable  that  in  the  twenty 
verses  devoted  to  this  subject,  this  is  the  only  one  which 
refers  to  the  inner  secrets  of  the  Christian  life.  Paul's 
notion  of  'deepening  the  spiritual  life'  was  'Behave 
yourself  better  in  your  relation  to  other  people.'  So 
all  the  rest  of  this  chapter  is  devoted  to  inculcating  our 
duties  to  one  another.  Conduct  is  all-important.  An 
orthodox  creed  is  valuable  if  it  influences  action,  but 
not  otherwise.  Devout  emotion  is  valuable,  if  it  drives 
the  wheels  of  life,  but  not  otherwise.  Christians  should 
make  efforts  to  attain  to  clear  views  and  warm  feel- 
ings, but  the  outcome  and  final  test  of  both  is  a  daily 
life  of  visible  imitation  of  Jesus.  The  deepening  of 
spiritual  life  should  be  manifested  by  completer,  prac- 
tical righteousness  in  the  market-place  and  the  street 
and  the  house,  which  non-Christians  will  acknowledge. 

But  now,  with  regard  to  these  three  specific  exhorta- 
tions here,  I  wish  to  try  to  bring  out  their  connection 
as  well  as  the  force  of  each  of  them. 

I.  So  I  remark  first,  that  the  Christian  life  ought  to 
be  joyful  because  it  is  hopeful. 

Now,  I  do  not  suppose  that  many  of  us  habitually 
recognise  it  as  a  Christian  duty  to  be  joyful.  We  think 
that  it  is  a  matter  of  temperament  and  partly  a  matter 
of  circumstance.  We  are  glad  when  things  go  well 
with  us.  If  we  have  a  sunny  disposition,  and  are 
naturally  light-hearted,  all  the  better;  if  we  have  a 
melancholy  or  morose  one,  all  the  worse.  But  do  we 
recognise  tliis,  that  a  Christian  who  is  not  joyful  is  not 
living  up  to  his  duty;  and  that  there  is  no  excuse, 
either  in  temperament  or  in  circumstances,  for  our  not 
being  so,  and  always  being  so  ?    '  Rejoice  in  the  Lord 


V.12]  ANOTHER  TRIPLET  OF  GRACES  275 

alway,'  says  Paul;  and  then,  as  if  he  thought,  'Some 
of  you  will  be  thinking  that  that  is  a  very  rash  com- 
mandment, to  aim  at  a  condition  quite  impossible  to 
make  constant,'  he  goes  on — •  and,  to  convince  you  that 
I  do  not  say  it  hastily,  I  will  repeat  it — "  and  again  I 
say,  rejoice."'  Brethren,  we  shall  have  to  alter  our 
conceptions  of  what  true  gladness  is  before  we  can 
come  to  understand  the  full  depth  of  the  great  thought 
that  joy  is  a  Christian  duty.  The  true  joy  is  not  the 
kind  of  joy  that  a  saying  in  the  Old  Testament  com- 
pares to  the  'crackling  of  thorns  under  a  pot,'  but 
something  very  much  calmer,  with  no  crackle  in  it; 
and  very  much  deeper,  and  very  much  more  in  alliance 
with  'whatsoever  things  are  lovely  and  of  good  report,' 
than  that  foolish,  short-lived,  and  empty  mirth  that 
burns  down  so  soon  into  black  ashes. 

To  be  glad  is  a  Christian  duty.  Many  of  us  have  as 
much  religion  as  makes  us  sombre,  and  impels  us  often 
to  look  upon  the  more  solemn  and  awful  aspects  of 
Christian  truth,  but  we  have  not  enough  to  make  us 
glad.  I  do  not  need  to  dwell  upon  all  the  sources  in 
Christian  faith  and  belief,  of  that  lofty  and  imperatively 
obligatory  gladness,  but  I  confine  myself  to  the  one  in 
my  text, '  Rejoicing  in  hope.' 

Now,  we  all  know — from  the  boy  that  is  expecting  to 
go  home  for  his  holidays  in  a  week,  up  to  the  old  man 
to  whose  eye  the  time-veil  is  wearing  thin — that  hope, 
if  it  is  certain,  is  a  source  of  gladness.  How  lightly 
one's  bosom's  lord  sits  upon  its  throne,  when  a  great 
hope  comes  to  animate  us  !  how  everybody  is  pleasant, 
and  all  things  are  easy,  and  the  world  looks  different ! 
Hope,  if  it  is  certain,  will  gladden,  and  if  our  Chris- 
tianity grasps,  as  it  ought  to  do,  the  only  hope  that  is 
absolutely  certain,  and  as  sure  as  if  it  were  in  the  past 


276        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS   [ch.  xii. 

and  had  been  experienced,  then  our  hearts,  too,  will 
sing  for  joy.  True  joy  is  not  a  matter  of  temperament, 
so  much  as  a  matter  of  faith.  It  is  not  a  matter  of  cir- 
cumstances. All  the  surface  drainage  may  be  dry,  but 
there  is  a  well  in  the  courtyard  deep  and  cool  and  full 
and  exhaustless,  and  a  Christian  who  rightly  under- 
stands and  cherishes  the  Christian  hope  is  lifted  above 
temperament,  and  is  not  dependent  upon  conditions  for 
his  joys. 

The  Apostle,  in  an  earlier  part  of  this  same  letter, 
defines  for  us  what  that  hope  is,  which  thus  is  the 
secret  of  perpetual  gladness,  when  he  speaks  about 
'  rejoicing  in  hope  of  the  glory  of  God.'  Yes,  it  is  that 
great,  supreme,  calm,  far  off,  absolutely  certain  pro- 
spect of  being  gathered  into  the  divine  glory,  and 
walking  there,  like  the  three  in  the  fiery  furnace,  un- 
consumed  and  at  ease ;  it  is  that  hope  that  will  triumph 
over  temperament,  and  over  all  occasions  for  melan- 
choly, and  will  breathe  into  our  life  a  perpetual  glad- 
ness. Brethren,  is  it  not  strange  and  sad  that  with 
such  a  treasure  by  our  sides  we  should  consent  to  live 
such  poor  lives  as  we  do  ? 

But  remember,  although  I  cannot  say  to  myself, 
'Now  I  will  be  glad,'  and  cannot  attain  to  joy  by  a 
movement  of  the  will  or  direct  effort,  although  it  is  of 
no  use  to  say  to  a  man — which  is  all  that  the  world  can 
ever  say  to  him — *  Cheer  up  and  be  glad,'  whilst  you  do 
not  alter  the  facts  that  make  him  sad,  there  is  a  way 
by  which  we  can  bring  about  feelings  of  gladness  or  of 
gloom.  It  is  just  this — we  can  choose  what  we  will 
look  at.  If  you  prefer  to  occupy  your  mind  with  the 
troubles,  losses,  disappointments,  hard  work,  blighted 
hopes  of  this  poor  sin-ridden  world,  of  course  sadness 
will  come  over  you  often,  and  a  general  grey  tone  will 


V.  12]  ANOTHER  TRIPLET  OF  GRACES  277 

be  the  usual  tone  of  your  lives,  as  it  is  of  the  lives  of 
many  of  us,  broken  only  by  occasional  bursts  of  foolish 
mirth  and  empty  laughter.  But  if  you  choose  to  turn 
away  from  all  these,  and  instead  of  the  dim,  dismal, 
hard  present,  to  sun  yourselves  in  the  light  of  the  yet 
unrisen  sun,  which  you  can  do,  then,  having  rightly 
chosen  the  subjects  to  think  about,  the  feeling  will 
come  as  a  matter  of  course.  You  cannot  make  your- 
selves glad  by,  as  it  were,  laying  hold  of  yourselves 
and  lifting  yourselves  into  gladness,  but  you  can  rule 
the  direction  of  your  thoughts,  and  so  can  bring  around 
you  summer  in  the  midst  of  winter,  by  steadily  con- 
templating the  facts — and  they  are  present  facts, 
though  we  talk  about  them  collectively  as  '  the  future ' 
— the  facts  on  which  all  Christian  gladness  ought  to 
be  based.  We  can  carry  our  own  atmosphere  with  us ; 
like  the  people  in  Italy,  who  in  frosty  weather  will  be 
seen  sitting  in  the  market-place  by  their  stalls  with  a 
dish  of  embers,  which  they  grasp  in  their  hands,  and 
so  make  themselves  comfortably  warm  on  the  bitterest 
day.  You  can  bring  a  reasonable  degree  of  warmth 
into  the  coldest  weather,  if  you  will  lay  hold  of  the 
vessel  in  which  the  fire  is,  and  keep  it  in  your  hand  and 
close  to  your  heart.  Choose  what  you  think  about, 
and  feelings  will  follow  thoughts. 

But  it  needs  very  distinct  and  continuous  effort  for 
a  man  to  keep  this  great  source  of  Christian  joy  clear 
before  him.  We  are  like  the  dwellers  in  some  island  of 
the  sea,  who,  in  some  conditions  of  the  atmosphere, 
can  catch  sight  of  the  gleaming  mountain-tops  on  the 
mainland  across  the  stormy  channel  between.  But 
thick  days,  with  a  heavy  atmosphere  and  much  mist, 
are  very  frequent  in  our  latitude,  and  then  all  the 
distant  hills  are  blotted  out,  and  we  see  nothing  but 


278        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS    [ch.xii. 

the  cold,  grey  sea,  breaking  on  the  cold,  grey  stones. 
Still,  you  can  scatter  the  mist  if  you  will.  You  can 
make  the  atmosphere  bright ;  and  it  is  worth  an  effort 
to  bring  clear  before  us,  and  to  keep  high  above  the 
mists  that  cling  to  the  low  levels,  the  great  vision 
which  will  make  us  glad.  Brethren,  I  believe  that 
one  great  source  of  the  weakness  of  average  Chris- 
tianity amongst  us  to-day  is  the  dimness  into  which  so 
many  of  us  have  let  the  hope  of  the  glory  of  God  pass 
in  our  hearts.  So  I  beg  you  to  lay  to  heart  this  first 
commandment,  and  to  rejoice  in  hope. 

II.  Now,  secondly,  here  is  the  thought  that  life,  if 
full  of  joyful  hope,  will  be  patient. 

I  have  been  saying  that  the  gladness  of  which  my 
text  speaks  is  independent  of  circumstances,  and  may 
persist  and  be  continuous  even  when  externals  occasion 
sadness.  It  is  possible — I  do  not  say  it  is  easy,  God 
knows  it  is  hard — I  do  not  say  it  is  frequently  attained, 
but  I  do  say  it  is  possible — to  realise  that  wonderful 
ideal  of  the  Apostle's  'As  sorrowful,  yet  always  rejoic- 
ing.' The  surface  of  the  ocean  may  be  tossed  and 
fretted  by  the  winds,  and  churned  into  foam,  but  the 
great  central  depths  'hear  not  the  loud  winds  when 
they  call,'  and  are  still  in  the  midst  of  tempest.  And 
we,  dear  brethren,  ought  to  have  an  inner  depth 
of  spirit,  down  to  the  disturbance  of  which  no  surface- 
trouble  can  ever  reach.  That  is  the  height  of  attain- 
ment of  Christian  faith,  but  it  is  a  possible  attainment 
for  every  one  of  us. 

And  if  there  be  that  burning  of  the  light  under  the 
water,  like  '  Greek  fire,'  as  it  was  called,  which  many 
waters  could  not  quench — if  there  be  that  persistence 
of  gladness  beneath  the  surface-sorrow,  as  you  find  a 
running  stream  coming  out  below  a  glacier,  then  the 


V.12]  ANOTHER  TRIPLET  OF  GRACES  279 

joy  and  the  hope,  which  co-exist  with  the  sorrow,  will 
make  life  patient. 

Now,  the  Apostle  means  by  these  great  words, 
•  patient '  and  '  patience,'  which  are  often  upon  his  lips, 
something  more  than  simple  endurance.  That  endur- 
ance is  as  much  as  many  of  us  can  often  muster  up 
strength  to  exercise.  It  sometimes  takes  all  our  faith 
and  all  our  submission  simply  to  say, '  I  opened  not  my 
mouth,  because  thou  didst  it ;  and  I  will  bear  what  thine 
hand  lays  upon  me.'  But  that  is  not  all  that  the  idea 
of  Christian  '  patience '  includes,  for  it  also  takes  in  the 
thought  of  active  work,  and  it  is  perseverance  as  much 
as  patience. 

Now,  if  my  heart  is  filled  with  a  calm  gladness 
because  my  eye  is  fixed  upon  a  celestial  hope,  then 
both  the  passive  and  active  sides  of  Christian '  patience ' 
will  be  realised  by  me.  If  my  hope  burns  bright,  and 
occupies  a  large  space  in  my  thoughts,  then  it  will  not 
be  hard  to  take  the  homely  consolation  of  good  John 
Newton's  hymn  and  say — 

*  Though  painful  at  present, 
'Twill  cease  before  long ; 
And  then,  oh,  how  pleasant 
The  conqueror's  song  1 ' 

A  man  who  is  sailing  to  America,  and  knows  that  he 
will  be  in  New  York  in  a  week,  does  not  mind,  although 
his  cabin  is  contracted,  and  he  has  a  great  many  dis- 
comforts, and  though  he  has  a  bout  of  sea-sickness. 
The  disagreeables  are  only  going  to  last  for  a  day  or 
two.  So  our  hope  will  make  us  bear  trouble,  and  not 
make  much  of  it. 

And  our  hope  will  strengthen  us,  if  it  is  strong,  for 
all  the  work  that  is  to  be  done.  Persistence  in  the 
path  of    duty,  though  my  heart  be  beating    like   a 


280        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS   [cH.xn. 

smith's  hammer  on  the  anvil,  is  what  Christian  men 
should  aim  at,  and  possess.  If  we  have  within  our 
hearts  that  fire  of  a  certain  hope,  it  will  impel  us  to 
diligence  in  doing  the  humblest  duty,  whether  circum- 
stances be  for  or  against  us ;  as  some  great  steamer  is 
driven  right  on  its  course,  through  the  ocean,  whatever 
storms  may  blow  in  the  teeth  of  its  progress,  because, 
deep  down  in  it,  there  are  furnaces  and  boilers  which 
supply  the  steam  that  drives  the  engines.  So  a  life 
that  is  joyful  because  it  is  hopeful  will  be  full  of  calm 
endurance  and  strenuous  work.  'Rejoicing  in  hope; 
patient,'  persevering  in  tribulation. 

III.  Lastly,  our  lives  will  be  joyful,  hopeful,  and 
patient,  in  proportion  as  they  are  prayerful. 

'Continuing  instant' — which,  of  course,  just  means 
steadfast — *  in  prayer.'  Paul  uttered  a  paradox  when  he 
said, '  Rejoice  in  the  Lord  alway,'  as  he  said  long  before 
this  verse,  in  the  very  first  letter  that  he  ever  wrote,  or 
at  least  the  first  which  has  come  down  to  us.  There  he 
bracketed  it  along  with  two  other  equally  paradoxical 
sayings.  *  Rejoice  evermore ;  pray  without  ceasing ;  in 
everything  give  thanks.'  If  you  pray  without  ceasing 
you  can  rejoice  without  ceasing. 

But  can  I  pray  without  ceasing?  Not  if  by  prayer 
you  mean  only  words  of  supplication  and  petition,  but 
if  by  prayer  you  mean  also  a  mental  attitude  of  devo- 
tion, and  a  kind  of  sub-conscious  reference  to  God  in 
all  that  you  do,  such  unceasing  prayer  is  possible.  Do 
not  let  us  blunt  the  edge  of  this  commandment,  and 
weaken  our  own  consciousness  of  having  failed  to 
obey  it,  by  getting  entangled  in  the  cobwebs  of  mere 
curious  discussions  as  to  whether  the  absolute  ideal  of 
perfectly  unbroken  communion  with  God  is  possible  in 
this  life.     At  all  events  it  is  possible  to  us  to  approxi- 


V.12]       STILL  ANOTHER  TRIPLET         281 

mate  to  that  ideal  a  great  deal  more  closely  than  our 
consciences  tell  us  that  we  ever  yet  have  done.  If  we 
are  trying  to  keep  our  hearts  in  the  midst  of  daily  duty 
in  contact  with  God,  and  if,  ever  and  anon  in  the  press 
of  our  work,  We  cast  a  thought  towards  Him  and  a 
prayer,  then  joy  and  hope  and  patience  will  come  to 
us,  in  a  degree  that  we  do  not  know  much  about  yet, 
but  might  have  known  all  about  long,  long  ago. 

There  is  a  verse  in  the  Old  Testament  which  we  may 
well  lay  to  heart :  *  They  cried  unto  God  in  the  battle, 
and  He  was  entreated  of  them.'  Well,  what  sort  of  a 
prayer  do  you  think  that  would  be  ?  Suppose  that  you 
were  standing  in  the  thick  of  battle  with  the  sword  of 
an  enemy  at  your  throat,  there  would  not  be  much 
time  for  many  words  of  prayer,  would  there  ?  But  the 
cry  could  go  up,  and  the  thought  could  go  up,  and  as 
they  went  up,  down  would  come  the  strong  buckler 
which  God  puts  between  His  servants  and  all  evil. 
That  is  the  sort  of  prayer  that  you,  in  the  battle  of 
business,  in  your  shops  and  counting-houses  and  ware- 
houses and  mills,  we  students  in  our  studies,  and  you 
mothers  in  your  families  and  your  kitchens,  can  send 
up  to  heaven.  If  thus  we  '  pray  without  ceasing,'  then 
we  shall '  rejoice  evermore,'  and  our  souls  will  be  kept 
in  patience  and  filled  with  the  peace  of  God. 


STILL  ANOTHER  TRIPLET 

•Distributing  to  the  necesgity  of  saints;  given  to  hospitality.  14.  Bless  them 
which  persecute  you :  bless,  and  curse  not.  15.  Rejoice  with  them  that  do  rejoice, 
and  weep  with  them  that  weep.'— Romans  xii.  13-15. 

In  these  verses  we  pass  from  the  innermost  region  of 
communion  with  God  into  the  wide  field  of  duties  in 
relation  to  men.     The  solitary  secrecies  of  rejoicing 


282        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS   [ch.  xii. 

hope,  endurance,  and  prayer  unbroken,  are  exchanged 
for  the  publicities  of  benevolence  and  sympathy.  In 
the  former  verses  the  Christian  soul  is  in  '  the  secret 
place  of  the  Most  High  ' ;  in  those  of  our  text  he  comes 
forth  with  the  light  of  God  on  his  face,  and  hands 
laden  with  blessings.  The  juxtaposition  of  the  two 
suggests  the  great  principles  to  which  the  morality  of 
the  New  Testament  is  ever  true — that  devotion  to  God 
is  the  basis  of  all  practical  helpfulness  to  man,  and  that 
practical  helpfulness  to  man  is  the  expression  and 
manifestation  of  devotion  to  God. 

The  three  sets  of  injunctions  in  our  text,  dissimilar 
though  they  appear,  have  a  common  basis.  They  are 
varying  forms  of  one  fundamental  disposition — love; 
which  varies  in  its  forms  according  to  the  necessities 
of  its  objects,  bringing  temporal  help  to  the  needy, 
meeting  hostility  with  blessing,  and  rendering  sym- 
pathy to  both  the  glad  and  the  sorrowful.  There  is, 
further,  a  noteworthy  connection,  not  in  sense  but 
in  sound,  between  the  first  and  second  clauses  of 
our  text,  which  is  lost  in  our  English  Version.  *  Given 
to  hospitality '  is,  as  the  Revised  margin  shows, 
literally,  pursuing  hospitality.  Now  the  Greek,  like 
the  English  word,  has  the  special  meaning  of  following 
with  a  hostile  intent,  and  the  use  of  it  in  the  one  sense 
suggests  its  other  meaning  to  Paul,  whose  habit  of 
'  going  off  at  a  word,'  as  it  has  been  called,  is  a  notable 
feature  of  his  style.  Hence,  this  second  injunction,  of 
blessing  the  persecutors,  comes  as  a  kind  of  play  upon 
words,  and  is  obviously  occasioned  by  the  verbal 
association.  It  would  come  more  appropriately  at  a 
later  part  of  the  chapter,  but  its  occurrence  here  is 
characteristic  of  Paul's  idiosyncrasy.  We  may  repre- 
sent the   connection  of   these  two  clauses  by  such  a 


vs.  13-15]    STILL  ANOTHER  TRIPLET       283 

rendering  as :  Pursue  hospitality,  and  as  for  those  who 
pursue  you,  bless,  and  curse  not. 

We  may  look  at  these  three  flowers  from  the  one  root 
of  love. 

I.  Love  that  speaks  in  material  help. 

We  have  here  two  special  applications  of  that  love 
which  Paul  regards  as  '  the  bond  of  perf  ectness,'  knit- 
ting all  Christians  together.  The  former  of  these  two 
is  love  that  expresses  itself  by  tangible  material  aid. 
The  persons  to  be  helped  are  '  saints,'  and  it  is  their 
'  needs  '  that  are  to  be  aided.  There  is  no  trace  in  the 
Pauline  Epistles  of  the  community  of  goods  which  for 
a  short  time  prevailed  in  the  Church  of  Jerusalem 
and  which  was  one  of  the  causes  that  led  to  the 
need  for  the  contribution  for  the  poor  saints  in 
that  city  which  occupied  so  much  of  Paul's  atten- 
tion at  Corinth  and  elsewhere.  But,  whilst  Christian 
love  leaves  the  rights  of  property  intact,  it  charges 
them  with  the  duty  of  supplying  the  needs  of  the 
brethren.  They  are  not  absolute  and  unconditioned 
rights,  but  are  subject  to  the  highest  principles 
of  stewardship  for  God,  trusteeship  for  men,  and 
sacrifice  for  Christ.  These  three  great  thoughts 
condition  and  limit  the  Christian  man's  possession  of 
the  wealth,  which,  in  a  modified  sense,  it  is  allowable 
for  him  to  call  his  own.  His  brother's  need  constitutes 
a  first  charge  on  all  that  belongs  to  him,  and  ought  to 
precede  the  gratification  of  his  own  desires  for  super- 
fluities and  luxuries.  If  we  '  see  our  brother  have  need 
and  shut  up  our  bowels  of  compassion  against  him' 
and  use  our  possessions  for  the  gratification  of  our 
own  whims  and  fancies,  'how  dwelleth  the  love  of 
God  in  us  ? '  There  are  few  things  in  which  Christian 
men  of   this  day  have  more  need  for   the  vigorous 


284        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS   [ch.  xii. 

exercise  of  conscience,  and  for  enlightenment,  than  in 
their  getting,  and  spending,  and  keeping  money.  In 
that  region  lies  the  main  sphere  of  usefulness  for  many 
of  us ;  and  if  we  have  not  been  '  faithful  in  that  which 
is  least,'  our  unfaithfulness  there  makes  it  all  but 
impossible  that  we  should  be  faithful  in  that  which  is 
greatest.  The  honest  and  rigid  contemplation  of  our 
own  faults  in  the  administration  of  our  worldly  goods, 
might  well  invest  with  a  terrible  meaning  the  Lord's 
tremendous  question,  •  If  ye  have  not  been  faithful  in 
that  which  is  another's,  who  shall  give  you  that  which 
is  your  own?' 

The  hospitality  which  is  here  enjoined  is  another 
shape  which  Christian  love  naturally  took  in  the  early 
days.  When  believers  were  a  body  of  aliens,  dispersed 
through  the  world,  and  when,  as  they  went  from  one 
place  to  another,  they  could  find  homes  only  amongst 
their  own  brethren,  the  special  circumstances  of  the 
time  necessarily  attached  special  importance  to  this 
duty ;  and  as  a  matter  of  fact,  we  find  it  recognised  in  all 
the  Epistles  of  the  New  Te^itament  as  one  of  the  most 
imperative  of  Christian  duties.  '  It  was  the  unity  and 
strength  which  this  intercourse  gave  that  formed  one 
of  the  great  forces  which  supported  Christianity.' 
But  whilst  hospitality  was  a  special  duty  for  the  early 
Christians,  it  still  remains  a  duty  for  us,  and  its  habitual 
exercise  would  go  far  to  break  down  the  frowning 
walls  which  diversities  of  social  position  and  of  culture 
have  reared  between  Christians. 

II.  The  love  that  meets  hostility  with  blessing. 

There  are  perhaps  few  words  in  Scripture  which  have 
been  more  fruitful  of  the  highest  graces  than  this 
commandment.  What  a  train  of  martyrs,  from  primi- 
tive times  to  the  Chinese  Christians  in  recent  years, 


Ys.  13-15]    STILL  ANOTHER  TRIPLET       285 

have  remembered  these  words,  and  left  their  legacy  of 
blessing  as  they  laid  their  heads  on  the  block  or  stood 
circled  by  fire  at  the  stake!  For  us,  in  our  quieter 
generation,  actual  persecution  is  rare,  but  hostility  of 
ill-will  more  or  less  may  well  dog  our  steps,  and  the 
great  principle  here  commended  to  us  is  that  we  are  to 
meet  enmity  with  its  opposite,  and  to  conquer  by  love. 
The  diamond  is  cut  with  sharp  knives,  and  each  stroke 
brings  out  flashing  beauty.  There  are  kinds  of  wood 
which  are  fragrant  when  they  burn;  and  there  are 
kinds  which  show  their  veining  under  the  plane.  It  is 
a  poor  thing  if  a  Christian  character  only  gives  back 
like  a  mirror  the  expression  of  the  face  that  looks  at  it. 
To  meet  hate  with  hate,  and  scorn  with  scorn,  is  not 
the  way  to  turn  hate  into  love  and  scorn  into  sympathy. 
Indifferent  equilibrium  in  the  presence  of  active  antag- 
onism is  not  possible  for  us.  As  long  as  we  are  sensi- 
tive we  shall  wince  from  a  blow,  or  a  sarcasm,  or  a 
sneer.  We  must  bless  in  order  to  keep  ourselves  from 
cursing.  The  lesson  is  very  hard,  and  the  only  way  of 
obeying  it  fully  is  to  keep  near  Christ  and  drink  in  His 
spirit  who  prayed  'Father,  forgive  them,  for  they 
know  not  what  they  do.' 

III.  Love  that  flows  in  wide  sympathy. 

Of  the  two  forms  of  sympathy  which  are  here 
enjoined,  the  former  is  the  harder.  To  'rejoice  with 
them  that  do  rejoice '  makes  a  greater  demand  on 
unselfish  love  than  to  'weep  with  them  that  weep.* 
Those  who  are  glad  feel  less  need  of  sympathy  than  do 
the  sorrowful,  and  envy  is  apt  to  creep  in  and  mar  the 
completeness  of  sympathetic  joy.  But  even  the  latter 
of  the  two  injunctions  is  not  altogether  easy.  The 
cynic  has  said  that  there  is  'something  not  whoUy 
displeasing  in  the  misfortunes  of  our  best  friends'; 


286         EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.  xii. 

and,  though  that  is  an  utterly  worldly  and  unchristian 
remark,  it  must  be  confessed  not  to  be  altogether 
wanting  in  truth. 

But  for  obedience  to  both  of  these  injunctions,  a 
heart  at  leisure  from  itself  is  needed  to  sympathise; 
and  not  less  needed  is  a  sedulous  cultivation  of  the 
power  of  sympathy.  No  doubt  temperament  has  much 
to  do  with  the  degree  of  our  obedience ;  but  this  whole 
context  goes  on  the  assumption  that  the  grace  of  God 
working  on  temperament  strengthens  natural  endow- 
ments by  turning  them  into  '  gifts  differing  according 
to  the  grace  that  is  given  to  us.'  Though  we  live  in 
that  awful  individuality  of  ours,  and  are  each,  as  it 
were,  islanded  in  ourselves  '  with  echoing  straits 
between  us  thrown,'  it  is  possible  for  us,  as  the  result 
of  close  communion  with  Jesus  Christ,  to  bridge  the 
chasms,  and  to  enter  into  the  joy  of  a  brother's  joy. 
He  who  groaned  in  Himself  as  He  drew  near  to  the 
grave  of  Lazarus,  and  was  moved  to  weep  with  the 
weeping  sisters,  will  help  us,  in  the  measure  in  which 
we  dwell  in  Him  and  He  in  us,  that  we  too  may  look 
'  not  every  man  on  his  own  things,  but  every  man  also 
on  the  things  of  others.' 

On  the  whole,  love  to  Jesus  is  the  basis  of  love  to 
man,  and  love  to  man  is  the  practical  worship  of 
Christianity.  As  in  all  things,  so  in  the  exhortations 
which  we  have  now  been  considering,  Jesus  is  our 
pattern  and  power.  He  Himself  communicates  with 
our  necessities,  and  opens  His  heart  to  give  us  hospit- 
able welcome  there.  He  Himself  has  shown  us  how  to 
meet  and  overcome  hatred  with  love,  and  hurt  with 
blessing.  He  shares  our  griefs,  and  by  sharing  lessens 
them.  He  shares  our  joys,  and  by  sharing  hallows 
them.  The  summing  up  of  all  these  specific  injunctions 


vs.  13-15]    STILL  ANOTHER  TRIPLET       287 

is,  '  Let  that  mind  be  in  you  which  was  also  in  Christ 
Jesus.' 


STILL  ANOTHER  TRIPLET 

'  Be  of  the  same  mind  one  toward  another.  Set  not  yonr  mind  on  high  things, 
but  condescend  to  things  that  are  lowly.  Be  not  wise  in  your  own  conceits.'— 
Romans  xii.  16  (R.V.). 

We  have  here  again  the  same  triple  arrangement  which 
has  prevailed  through  a  considerable  portion  of  the 
context.  These  three  exhortations  are  linked  together 
by  a  verbal  resemblance  which  can  scarcely  be  preserved 
in  translation.  In  the  two  former  the  same  verb  is 
employed:  and  in  the  third  the  word  for  'wise'  is 
cognate  with  the  verb  found  in  the  other  two  clauses. 
If  we  are  to  seek  for  any  closer  connection  of  thought 
we  may  find  it  first  in  this — that  all  the  three  clauses 
deal  with  mental  attitudes,  whilst  the  preceding  ones 
dealt  with  the  expression  of  such ;  and  second  in  this 
— that  the  first  of  the  three  is  a  general  precept,  and 
the  second  and  third  are  warnings  against  faults  which 
are  most  likely  to  interfere  with  it. 

I.  We  note,  the  bond  of  peace. 

*Be  of  the  same  mind  one  toward  another.*  It 
is  interesting  to  notice  how  frequently  the  Apostle 
in  many  of  his  letters  exhorts  to  mutual  harmonious 
relations.  For  instance,  in  this  very  Epistle  he  invokes 
'  the  God  of  patience  and  of  comfort '  to  grant  to  the 
Roman  Christians  '  to  be  of  the  same  mind  with  one 
another  according  to  Christ  Jesus,'  and  to  the  Cor- 
inthians, who  had  their  full  share  of  Greek  divisive- 
ness,  he  writes,  '  Be  of  the  same  mind,  live  in  peace,' 
and  assures  them  that,  if  so,  '  the  God  of  love  and  peace 


288        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS   [ch.  xii. 

will  be  with  them ' ;  to  his  beloved  Philippians  he  pours 
out  his  heart  in  beseeching  them  by  '  the  consolation 
that  is  in  Christ  Jesus,  and  the  comfort  of  love,  and  the 
fellowship  of  the  Spirit — '  that  they  would  'fulfil  hia 
joy,  that  they  be  of  the  same  mind,  having  the  same 
love,  being  of  one  accord,  of  one  mind ' ;  whilst  to  the 
two  women  in  that  Church  who  were  at  variance  with 
one  another  he  sends  the  earnest  exhortation  '  to  be  of 
the  same  mind  in  the  Lord,'  and  prays  one  whom  we 
only  know  by  his  loving  designation  of  '  a  true  yoke- 
fellow,' to  help  them  in  what  would  apparently  put 
a  strain  upon  their  Christian  principle.  For  com- 
munities and  for  individuals  the  cherishing  of  the 
spirit  of  amity  and  concord  is  a  condition  without 
which  there  will  be  little  progress  in  the  Christian  life. 
But  it  is  to  be  carefully  noted  that  such  a  spirit  may 
co-exist  with  great  differences  about  other  matters.  It 
is  not  opposed  to  wide  divergence  of  opinion,  though 
in  our  imperfect  sanctification  it  is  hard  for  us  to 
differ  and  yet  to  be  in  concord.  We  all  know  the 
hopelessness  of  attempting  to  make  half  a  dozen  good 
men  think  alike  on  any  of  the  greater  themes  of  the 
Christian  religion ;  and  if  we  could  succeed  in  such  a 
vain  attempt,  there  would  still  be  many  an  unguarded 
door  through  which  could  come  the  spirit  of  discord, 
and  the  half-dozen  might  have  divergence  of  heart 
even  whilst  they  profess  identity  of  opinion.  The  true 
hindrances  to  our  having  *  the  same  mind  one  toward 
another'  lie  very  much  deeper  in  our  nature  than  the 
region  in  which  we  keep  our  creeds.  The  self-regard 
and  self- absorption,  petulant  dislike  of  fellow - 
Christians'  peculiarities,  the  indifference  which  conies 
from  lack  of  imaginative  sympathy,  and  which 
ministers  to  the  ignorance  which  causes    it,  and    a 


▼B.  12-16]    STILL  ANOTHER  TRIPLET       289 

thousand  other  weaknesses  in  Christian  character 
bring  about  the  deplorable  alienation  which  but  too 
plainly  marks  the  relation  of  Christian  communities 
and  of  individual  Christians  to  one  another  in  this 
day.  When  one  thinks  of  the  actual  facts  in  every 
corner  of  Christendom,  and  probes  one's  own  feelings, 
the  contrast  between  the  apostolic  ideal  and  the 
Church's  realisation  of  it  presents  a  contradiction  so 
glaring  that  one  wonders  if  Christian  people  at  all 
believe  that  it  is  their  duty  *  to  be  of  the  same  mind 
one  toward  another.' 

The  attainment  of  this  spirit  of  amity  and  concord 
ought  to  be  a  distinct  object  of  effort,  and  especially 
in  times  like  ours,  when  there  is  no  hostile  pressure 
driving  Christian  people  together,  but  when  our  great 
social  differences  are  free  to  produce  a  certain  inevit- 
able divergence  and  to  check  the  flow  of  our  sym- 
pathy, and  when  there  are  deep  clefts  of  opinion,  grow- 
ing deeper  every  day,  and  seeming  to  part  off  Christians 
into  camps  which  have  little  understanding  of,  and 
less  sympathy  with,  one  another.  Even  the  strong 
individualism,  which  it  is  the  glory  of  true  Christian 
faith  to  foster  in  character,  and  which  some  forms  of 
Christian  fellowship  do  distinctly  promote,  works 
harm  in  this  matter ;  and  those  who  pride  themselves 
on  belonging  to  'Free  churches,'  and  standing  apart 
from  creed-bound  and  clergy-led  communities,  are 
specially  called  upon  to  see  to  it  that  they  keep  this 
exhortation,  and  cultivate  *  the  unity  of  the  Spirit  in 
the  bond  of  peace.' 

It  should  not  be  necessary  to  insist  that  the  closest 
nautual  concord  amongst  all  believers  is  but  an 
,^nperfect  manifestation,  as  all  manifestations  in  life 
of  the  deepest  principles  must  be,  of  the  true  oneness 

T 


290        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.  xii. 

which  binds  together  in  the  most  sacred  unity,  and 
should  bind  together  in  closest  friendship,  all  partakers 
of  the  one  life.  And  assuredly  the  more  that  one  life 
flows  into  our  spirits,  the  less  power  will  all  the 
enemies  of  Christian  concord  have  over  us.  It  is  the 
Christ  in  us  which  makes  us  kindred  with  all  others  in 
whom  He  is.  It  is  self,  in  some  form  or  other,  that 
separates  us  from  the  possessors  of  like  precious  faith. 
When  the  tide  is  out,  the  little  rock-pools  on  the  shore 
lie  separated  by  stretches  of  slimy  weeds,  but  the 
great  sea,  when  it  rushes  up,  buries  the  divisions,  and 
unites  them  all.  Our  Christian  unity  is  unity  in 
Christ,  and  the  only  sure  way  *  to  be  of  the  same  mind 
one  toward  another '  is,  that  '  the  mind  which  was  in 
Christ  Jesus  be  in  us  also.' 

II.  The  divisive  power  of  selfish  ambition. 

*  Set  not  your  mind  on  high  things,  but  condescend  to 
things  that  are  lowly.'  The  contrast  here  drawn  be- 
tween the  high  and  the  lowly  makes  it  probable  that 
the  latter  as  well  as  the  former  is  to  be  taken  as 
referring  to  '  things '  rather  than  persons.  The  margin 
of  the  Revised  Version  gives  the  literal  rendering  of 
the  word  translated  '  condescend.'  '  To  be  carried 
away  with,'  is  metaphorically  equivalent  to  surrender- 
ing one's  self  to;  and  the  two  clauses  present  two 
sides  of  one  disposition,  which  seeks  :iot  for  per- 
sonal advancement  or  conspicuous  work  which  may 
minister  to  self-gratulation,  but  contentedly  fills  the 
lowly  sphere,  and  'the  humblest  duties  on  herself 
doth  lay.'  We  need  not  pause  to  point  out  that  such 
an  ideal  is  dead  against  the  fashionable  maxims  of 
this  generation.  Personal  ambition  is  glorified  as  an 
element  in  progress,  and  to  a  world  which  believes  ir 
such  a  proverb  as  '  devil  take  the  hindmost,'  these  two 


vs.  12-16]     STILL  ANOTHER  TRIPLET      291 

exhortations  can  only  seem  fanatical  absurdity.  And 
yet,  perhaps,  if  we  fairly  take  into  account  how  the 
seeking  after  personal  advancement  and  conspicuous 
work  festers  the  soul,  and  how  the  flower  of  heart's- 
ease  grows,  as  Bunyan's  shepherd-boy  found  out,  in 
the  lowly  valley,  these  exhortations  to  a  quiet  per- 
formance of  lowly  duties  and  a  contented  filling  of 
lowly  spheres,  may  seem  touched  with  a  higher 
wisdom  than  is  to  be  found  in  the  arenas  where  men 
trample  over  each  other  in  their  pursuit  of  a  fame 
'  which  appeareth  for  a  little  time,  and  then  vanisheth 
away.'  What  a  peaceful  world  it  would  be,  and  what 
peaceful  souls  they  would  have,  if  Christian  people 
really  adopted  as  their  own  these  two  simple  maxims. 
They  are  easy  to  understand,  but  how  hard  they  are 
to  follow. 

It  needs  scarcely  be  noted  that  the  temper  con- 
demned here  destroys  all  the  concord  and  amity 
which  the  Apostle  has  been  urging  in  the  previous 
clause.  Where  every  man  is  eagerly  seeking  to  force 
himself  in  front  of  his  neighbour,  any  community  will 
become  a  struggling  mob ;  and  they  who  are  trying  to 
outrun  one  another  and  who  grasp  at '  high  things,'  will 
never  be  *  of  the  same  mind  one  toward  another.'  But, 
we  may  observe  that  the  surest  way  to  keep  in  check 
the  natural  selfish  tendency  to  desire  conspicuous  things 
for  ourselves  is  honestly,  and  with  rigid  self-control, 
to  let  ourselves  be  carried  away  by  enthusiasm  for 
humble  tasks.  If  we  would  not  disturb  our  lives  and 
fret  our  hearts  by  ambitions  that,  even  when  gratified, 
bring  no  satisfaction,  we  must  yield  ourselves  to  the 
impulse  of  the  continuous  stream  of  lowly  duties 
which  runs  through  every  life. 

But,  plainly  as  this  exhortation  is  needful,  it  is  too 


292        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS   [ch.xii. 

heavy  a  strain  to  be  ever  carried  out  except  by  the 
power  of  Christ  formed  in  the    heart.     It  is  in  His 
earthly  life  that  we  find   the   great   example  of  the 
highest  stooping  to  the  lowest  duties,  and  elevating 
tjiem  by  taking  them  upon  Himself.   He  did  not '  strive 
nor  cry,  nor  cause  His  voice  to  be  heard  in  the  streets.' 
Thirty  years  of  that  perfect  life  were  spent  in  a  little 
village   folded  away  in  the  Galilean  hills,  with  rude 
peasants    for    the    only  spectators,  and    the  narrow 
sphere  of  a  carpenter's  shop  for  its  theatre.     For  the 
rest,  the  publicity  possible  would  have  been  obscurity 
to  an  ambitious  soul.    To  speak  comforting  words  to 
a  few   weeping   hearts ;    to  lay  His  hands   on  a  few 
sick  folk  and  heal  them ;  to  go  about  in  a  despised  land 
doing    good,  loved    indeed  by  outcasts  and    sinners, 
unknown  by  all  the  dispensers  of  renown,  and  con- 
sciously despised  by  all  whom  the  world  honoured — 
that  was  the  perfect  life  of  the  Incarnate  God.    And 
that  is  an  example  which  His  followers  seem  with  one 
consent  to  set  aside  in  their  eager  race  after  distinc- 
tion and   work  that  may  glorify  their  names.    The 
difficulty  of  a    faithful  following   of   these   precepts, 
and  the  only  means  by  which  that  difficulty  can  be 
overcome,  are   touchingly   taught    us   in   another  of 
Paul's  Epistles  by  the  accumulation  of  motives  which 
he  brings  to  bear  upon  his  commandment,  when  he  ex- 
horts by  the  tender  motives  of  '  comfort  in  Christ,  con- 
solation of  love,  fellowship  of  the  Spirit,  and  tender 
mercies  and  compassions,  that  ye  fulfil  my  joy,  being 
of    the    same    mind,    of    one  accord ;    doing    nothing 
through  faction  or  vainglory,  but  in  lowliness  of  mind 
each  counting   other   better    than    himself.'     As   the 
pattern  for  each  of  us  in  our  narrow  sphere,  he  holds 
forth  the  mind  that  was  in  Christ  Jesus,  and  the  great 


vs.  12-16]    STILL  ANOTHER  TRIPLET       293 

self-emptying  which  he  shrank  not  from,  'but  being 
in  the  form  of  God  counted  it  not  a  prize  to  be  on 
an  equality  with  God,  but,  being  found  in  fashion  as 
a  man,  He  humbled  Himself,  becoming  obedient  even 
unto  death.' 

III.  The  divisive  power  of  intellectual  self-conceit. 

In  this  final  clause  the  Apostle,  in  some  sense, 
repeats  the  maxim  with  which  he  began  the  series  of 
special  exhortations  in  this  chapter.  He  there  en- 
joined '  every  one  among  you  not  to  think  of  himself 
more  highly  than  he  ought  to  think ' ;  here  he  deals 
with  one  especial  form  of  such  too  lofty  thinking, 
viz.  intellectual  conceit.  He  is  possibly  quoting  the 
Book  of  Proverbs  (iii.  7),  where  we  read,  *  Be  not  wise 
in  thine  own  eyes,'  which  is  preceded  by,  *  Lean  not  to 
thine  own  understanding ;  in  all  thy  ways  acknowledge 
Him ' ;  and  is  followed  by, '  Fear  the  Lord  and  depart 
from  evil ' ;  thus  pointing  to  the  acknowledgment  and 
fear  of  the  Lord  as  the  great  antagonist  of  such 
over-estimate  of  one's  own  wisdom  as  of  all  other 
faults  of  mind  and  life.  It  needs  not  to  point  out 
how  such  a  disposition  breaks  Christian  unity  of  spirit. 
There  is  something  especially  isolating  in  that  form 
of  self-conceit.  There  are  few  greater  curses  in  the 
Church  than  little  coteries  of  superior  persons  who 
cannot  feed  on  ordinary  food,  whose  enlightened 
intelligence  makes  them  too  fastidious  to  soil  their 
dainty  fingers  with  rough,  vulgar  work,  and  whose 
supercilious  criticism  of  the  unenlightened  souls  that 
are  content  to  condescend  to  lowly  Christian  duties, 
is  like  an  iceberg  that  brings  down  the  temperature 
wherever  it  floats.  That  temper  indulged  in,  breaks  the 
unity,  reduces  to  inactivity  the  work,  and  puts  an  end 
to  the  progress,  of  any  Christian  community  in  which 


294        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS   [ch.  xii. 

it  is  found ;  and  just  as  its  predominance  is  harmful, 
so  the  obedience  to  the  exhortation  against  it  is  in- 
separable from  the  fulfilling  of  its  sister  precepts.  To 
know  ourselves  for  the  foolish  creatures  that  we  are, 
is  a  mighty  help  to  being  'of  the  same  mind  one 
toward  another.'  Who  thinks  of  himself  soberly  and 
according  to  the  measure  of  faith  which  God  hath 
dealt  to  him  will  not  hunger  after  high  things,  but 
rather  prefer  the  lowly  ones  that  are  on  a  level  with 
his  lowly  self. 

The  exhortations  of  our  text  were  preceded  with 
injunctions  to  distribute  material  help,  and  to  bestow 
helpful  sympathy.  The  tempers  enjoined  in  our 
present  text  are  the  inward  source  and  fountain  of 
such  external  bestowments.  The  rendering  of 
material  help  and  of  sympathetic  emotion  are  right 
and  valuable  only  as  they  are  the  outcome  of  this 
unanimity  and  lowliness.  It  is  possible  to  '  distribute 
to  the  necessity  of  saints '  in  such  a  way  as  that  the 
gift  pains  more  than  a  blow ;  it  is  possible  to  proffer 
sympathy  so  that  the  sensitive  heart  shrinks  from  it. 
It  was  'when  the  multitude  of  them  that  believed 
were  of  one  heart  and  one  soul '  that  it  became  natural 
to  have  all  things  common.  As  in  the  aurora  borealis, 
quivering  beams  from  different  centres  stream  out 
and  at  each  throb  approach  each  other  till  they  touch 
and  make  an  arch  of  light  that  glorifies  the  winter's 
night,  so,  if  Christian  men  were  'of  the  same  mind 
toward  one  another,'  did  not  '  set  their  minds  on  high 
things,  but  condescended  to  things  that  were  lowly, 
and  were  not  wise  in  their  own  conceits,'  the  Church  of 
Christ  would  shine  forth  in  the  darkness  of  a  selfish 
world  and  would  witness  to  Him  who  came  down 
*from  the  highest  throne  in  glory'  to  the  lowliest 


vs.12-16]    STILL  ANOTHER  TRIPLET       295 

place  in  this  lowly  world,  that  He  might  lift  us  to  His 
own  height  of  glory  everlasting. 


STILL  ANOTHER  TRIPLET 

'  Render  to  no  man  evil  for  evil.  Take  thought  for  things  honourable  in  the 
sight  of  all  men.  18.  If  it  be  possible,  as  much  as  in  you  lieth,  be  at  peace  with  all 
men.'— Romans  xii.  17, 18  (R.V.). 

The  closing  words  of  this  chapter  have  a  certain  unity 
in  that  they  deal  principally  with  a  Christian's  duty  in 
the  face  of  hostility  and  antagonism.  A  previous 
injunction  touched  on  the  same  subject  in  the  exhorta- 
tion to  bless  the  persecutors  ;  but  with  that  exception, 
all  the  preceding  verses  have  dealt  with  duties  owing 
to  those  with  whom  we  stand  in  friendly  relations. 
Such  exhortations  take  no  cognisance  of  the  special 
circumstances  of  the  primitive  Christians  as  '  lambs  in 
the  midst  of  wolves ' ;  and  a  large  tract  of  Christian 
duty  would  be  undealt  with,  if  we  had  not  such  direc- 
tions for  feelings  and  actions  in  the  face  of  hate  and 
hurt.  The  general  precept  in  our  text  is  expanded  in 
a  more  complete  form  in  the  verses  which  follow  the 
text,  and  we  may  postpone  its  consideration  until  we 
have  to  deal  with  them.  It  is  one  form  of  the  applica- 
tion of  the 'love  without  hypocrisy '  which  has  been 
previously  recommended.  The  second  of  these  three 
precepts  seems  quite  heterogeneous,  but  it  may  be 
noticed  that  the  word  for  '  evil '  in  the  former  and  that 
for  '  honourable,'  in  these  closely  resemble  each  other 
in  sound,  and  the  connection  of  the  two  clauses  may 
be  partially  owing  to  that  verbal  resemblance ;  whilst 
we  may  also  discern  a  real  link  between  the  thoughts 
in  the  consideration  that  we  owe  even  to  our  enemies 


296        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS   [ch.  xii. 

the  exhibition  of  a  life  which  a  prejudiced  hostility 
will  be  forced  to  recognise  as  good.  The  third  of  these 
exhortations  prescribes  unmoved  persistence  in  friendly 
regard  to  all  men. 

Dealing  then,  in  this  sermon  only,  with  the  second 
and  third  of  these  precepts,  and  postponing  the  con- 
sideration of  the  first  to  the  following  discourse,  we 
have  here  the  counsel  that 

I.  Hostility  is  to  be  met  with  a  holy  and  beautiful 
life. 

The  Authorised  Version  inadequately  translates  the 
significant  word  in  this  exhortation  by  '  honest.'  The 
Apostle  is  not  simply  enjoining  honesty  in  our  modern, 
narrow  sense  of  the  word,  which  limits  it  to  the  render- 
ing to  every  man  his  own.  It  is  a  remarkable  thing  that 
'honest,'  like  many  other  words  expressing  various 
types  of  goodness,  has  steadily  narrowed  in  significa- 
tion, and  it  is  very  characteristic  of  England  that 
probity  as  to  money  and  material  goods  should  be  its 
main  meaning.  Here  the  word  is  used  in  the  full 
breadth  of  its  ancient  use,  and  is  equivalent  to  that 
which  is  fair  with  the  moral  beauty  of  goodness. 

A  Christian  man  then  is  bound  to  live  a  life  which  all 
men  will  acknowledge  to  be  good.  In  that  precept  is 
implied  the  recognition  of  even  bad  men's  notions  of 
morality  as  correct.  The  Gospel  is  not  a  new  system 
of  ethics,  though  in  some  points  it  brings  old  virtues 
into  new  prominence,  and  alters  their  perspective.  It 
is  further  implied  that  the  world's  standard  of  what 
Christians  ought  to  be  may  be  roughly  taken  as  a  true 
one.  Christian  men  would  learn  a  great  deal  about 
themselves,  and  might  in  many  respects  heighten  their 
ideal,  if  they  would  try  to  satisfy  the  expectations  of 
the  most  degraded  among  them  as  to  what  they  ought 


vs.  17,18]    STILL  ANOTHER  TRIPLET       297 

to  be.  The  worst  of  men  has  a  rude  sense  of  duty 
which  tops  the  attainments  of  the  best.  Christian 
people  ought  to  seek  for  the  good  opinion  of  those 
around  them.  They  are  not  to  take  that  opinion  as 
the  motive  for  their  conduct,  nor  should  they  do  good 
in  order  to  be  praised  or  admired  for  it ;  but  they  are 
to  'adorn  the  doctrine,'  and  to  let  their  light  shine 
that  men  seeing  their  good  may  be  led  to  think  more 
loftily  of  its  source,  and  so  to  'glorify  their  Father 
which  is  in  heaven.'  That  is  one  way  of  preaching  the 
Gospel.  The  world  knows  goodness  when  it  sees  it, 
though  it  often  hates  it,  and  has  no  better  ground  for 
its  dislike  of  a  man  than  that  his  purity  and  beauty  of 
character  make  the  lives  of  others  seem  base  indeed. 
Bats  feel  the  light  to  be  light,  though  they  flap  against 
it,  and  the  winnowing  of  their  leathery  wings  and 
their  blundering  flight  are  witnesses  to  that  against 
which  they  strike.  Jesus  had  to  say,  'The  world 
hateth  Me  because  I  testify  of  it  that  the  deeds 
thereof  are  evil.'  That  witness  was  the  result  of  His 
being  '  the  Light  of  the  world ' ;  and  if  His  followers 
are  illuminated  from  Him,  they  will  have  the  same 
effect,  and  must  be  prepared  for  the  same  response. 
But  none  the  less  is  it  incumbent  upon  them  to  '  take 
thought  for  things  honourable  in  the  sight  of  all 
men.' 

This  duty  involves  the  others  of  taking  care  that  we 
have  goodness  to  show,  and  that  we  do  not  make  our 
goodness  repulsive  by  our  additions  to  it.  There  are 
good  people  who  comfort  themselves  when  men  dislike 
them,  or  scoff  at  them,  by  thinking  that  their  religion 
is  the  cause,  when  it  is  only  their  own  roughness  and 
harshness  of  character.  It  is  not  enough  that  we 
present  an  austere  and  repellent  virtue ;  the  fair  food 


298        EPiSTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS    [ch.  xii. 

should  be  set  on  a  fair  platter.  This  duty  is  especially- 
owing  to  our  enemies.  They  are  our  keenest  critics. 
They  watch  for  our  halting.  The  thought  of  their 
hostile  scrutiny  should  ever  stimulate  us,  and  the 
consciousness  that  Argus-eyes  are  watching  us,  with  a 
keenness  sharpened  by  dislike,  should  lead  us  not  only 
to  vigilance  over  our  own  steps,  but  also  to  the  prayer, 
'  Lead  me  in  a  plain  path,  because  of  those  who  watch 
me.'  To  '  provide  things  honest  in  the  sight  of  all 
men'  is  a  possible  way  of  disarming  some  hostility, 
conciliating  some  prejudice,  and  commending  to  some 
hearts  the  Lord  whom  we  seek  to  imitate. 

II.  Be  sure  that,  if  there  is  to  be  enmity,  it  is  all  on 
one  side. 
*  As  much  as  in  you  lieth,  be  at  peace  with  all.' 
These  words  are,  I  think,  unduly  limited  when  they 
are  supposed  to  imply  that  there  are  circumstances  in 
which  a  Christian  has  a  right  to  be  at  strife.  As  if 
they  meant :  Be  peaceable  as  far  as  you  can ;  but  if  it 
be  impossible,  then  quarrel.  The  real  meaning  goes 
far  deeper  than  that.  'It  takes  two  to  make  a 
quarrel,'  says  the  old  proverb ;  it  takes  two  to  make 
peace  also,  does  it  not  ?  We  cannot  determine  whether 
our  relations  with  men  will  be  peaceful  or  no  ;  we  are 
only  answerable  for  our  part,  and  for  that  we  are 
answerable.  'As  much  as  lieth  in  you'  is  the  explanation 
of  '  if  it  be  possible.'  Your  part  is  to  be  at  peace ;  it  is 
not  your  part  up  to  a  certain  point  and  no  further,  but 
always,  and  in  all  circumstances,  it  is  your  part.  It 
may  not  be  possible  to  be  at  peace  with  all  men ;  there 
may  be  some  who  will  quarrel  with  you.  You  are  not 
to  blame  for  that,  but  their  part  and  yours  are  separate, 
and  your  part  is  the  same  whatever  they  do.  Be  you 
at  peace  with  all  men  whether  they  are  at  peace  with 


vs.  17, 18]    STILL  ANOTHER  TRIPLET      299 

you  or  not.  Don't  you  quarrel  with  them  even  if  they 
will  quarrel  with  you.  That  seems  to  me  to  be  plainly 
the  meaning  of  the  words.  It  would  be  contrary  to 
the  tenor  of  the  context  and  the  teaching  of  the  New 
Testament  to  suppose  that  here  we  had  that  favourite 
principle, '  There  is  a  point  beyond  which  forbearance 
cannot  go,'  where  it  becomes  right  to  cherish  hostile 
sentiments  or  to  try  to  injure  a  man.  If  there  be  such 
a  point,  it  is  very  remarkable  that  there  is  no  attempt 
made  in  the  New  Testament  to  define  it.  The  nearest 
approach  to  such  definition  is  '  till  seventy  times  seven,' 
the  two  perfect  numbers  multiplied  into  themselves. 
So  I  think  that  this  injunction  absolutely  prescribes  per- 
sistent, patient  peacef  ulness,  and  absolutely  proscribes 
our  taking  up  the  position  of  antagonism,  and  under 
no  circumstances  meeting  hate  with  hate.  It  does  not 
follow  that  there  is  never  to  be  opposition.  It  may  be 
necessary  for  the  good  of  the  opponent  himself,  and 
for  the  good  of  society,  that  he  should  be  hindered  in 
his  actions  of  hostility,  but  there  is  never  to  be  bitter- 
ness ;  and  we  must  take  care  that  none  of  the  devil's 
leaven  mingles  with  our  zeal  against  evil. 

There  is  no  need  for  enlarging  on  the  enormouis 
difficulty  of  carrying  out  such  a  commandment  in  our 
daily  lives.  We  all  know  too  well  how  hard  it  is  ;  but 
we  may  reflect  for  a  moment  on  the  absolute  necessity 
of  obeying  this  precept  to  the  full.  For  their  own 
souls'  sakes  Christian  men  are  to  avoid  all  bitterness, 
strife,  and  malice.  Let  us  try  to  remember,  and  to 
bring  to  bear  on  our  daily  lives,  the  solemn  things 
which  Jesus  said  about  God's  forgiveness  being 
measured  by  our  forgiveness.  The  faithful,  even 
though  imperfect,  following  of  this  exhortation  would 
revolutionise  our  lives.    Nothing  that  we  can  only  win 


300        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS   [ch.xii. 

by  fighting  with  our  fellows  is  worth  fighting  for. 
Men  will  weary  of  antagonism  which  is  met  only 
by  the  imperturbable  calm  of  a  heart  at  peace  with 
God,  and  seeking  peace  with  all  men.  The  hot 
fire  of  hatred  dies  down,  like  burning  coals  scat- 
tered on  a  glacier,  when  laid  against  the  crystal 
coldness  of  a  patient,  peaceful  spirit.  Watch-dogs 
in  farmhouses  will  bark  half  the  night  through  be- 
cause they  hear  another  barking  a  mile  off.  It  takes 
two  to  make  a  quarrel ;  let  me  be  sure  that  I  am  never 
one  of  the  two  I 


STILL  ANOTHER  TRIPLET 

'  Dearly  beloved,  avenge  not  yourselves,  but  rather  give'  place  unto  wrath : 
for  it  is  written.  Vengeance  is  mine ;  I  will  repay,  saith  the  Lord.  20.  Therefore 
if  thine  enemy  hunger,  feed  him  :  if  he  thirst,  give  him  drink ;  for  in  so  doing 
thou  shalt  heap  coals  of  flre  on  his  head.  21.  Be  not  overcome  of  evil,  but  over- 
come evil  with  good.'— Romans  xii.  19-21. 

The  natural  instinct  is  to  answer  enmity  with  enmity, 
and  kindliness  with  kindliness.  There  are  many  people 
of  whom  we  think  well  and  like,  for  no  other  reason 
than  because  we  believe  that  they  think  well  of  and 
like  us.  Such  a  love  is  really  selfishness.  In  the  same 
fashion,  dislike,  and  alienation  on  the  part  of  another 
naturally  reproduce  themselves  in  our  own  minds.  A 
dog  will  stretch  its  neck  to  be  patted,  and  snap  at  a 
stick  raised  to  strike  it.  It  requires  a  strong  effort  to 
master  this  instinctive  tendency,  and  that  effort  the 
plainest  principles  of  Christian  morality  require  from 
us  all.  The  precepts  in  our  text  are  in  twofold  form, 
negative  and  positive ;  and  they  are  closed  with  a 
general  principle,  which  includes  both  these  forms,  and 
much  more  besides.  There  are  two  pillars,  and  a  great 
lintel  coping  them,  like  the  trilithons  of  Stonehenge. 


vs.  19-21]    STILL  ANOTHER  TRIPLET      301 

I.  We  deal  with  the  negative  precept. 

•  Avenge  not  yourselves,  beloved,  but  give  place  unto 
wrath.'  Do  not  take  the  law  into  your  own  hands,  but 
leave  God's  way  of  retribution  to  work  itself  out.  By 
avenging,  the  Apostle  means  a  passionate  redress  of 
private  wrongs  at  the  bidding  of  personal  resentment. 
We  must  note  how  deep  this  precept  goes.  It  pro- 
hibits not  merely  external  acts  which,  in  civilised  times 
are  restrained  by  law,  but,  as  with  Christian  morality, 
it  deals  with  thoughts  and  feelings,  and  not  only  with 
deeds.  It  forbids  such  natural  and  common  thoughts 
as  •  I  owe  him  an  ill  turn  for  that ' ;  '  I  should  like  to 
pay  him  off.'  A  great  deal  of  what  is  popularly  c£^lled 
'  a  proper  spirit '  becomes  extremely  improper  if  tested 
by  this  precept.  There  is  an  eloquent  word  in  German 
which  we  can  only  clumsily  reproduce,  which  christens 
the  ugly  pleasure  at  seeing  misfortune  and  calls  it  'joy 
in  others'  disasters.'  We  have  not  the  word ;  would 
that  we  had  not  the  thing  I 

A  solemn  reason  is  added  for  the  difficult  precept,  in 
that  frequently  misunderstood  saying,  'Give  place 
unto  wrath.'  The  question  is,  Whose  wrath?  And, 
plainly,  the  subsequent  words  of  the  section  show  that 
it  is  God's.  That  quotation  comes  from  Deuteronomy 
xxxii.  35.  It  is  possibly  unfortunate  that  *  vengeance ' 
is  ascribed  to  God ;  for  hasty  readers  lay  hold  of  the 
idea  of  passionate  resentment,  and  transfer  it  to  Him, 
whereas  His  retributive  action  has  in  it  no  resent- 
ment and  no  passion.  Nor  are  we  to  suppose  that 
the  thought  here  is  only  the  base  one,  they  are  sure 
to  he  'punished,  so  we  need  not  trouble.  The  Apostle 
points  to  the  solemn  fact  of  retribution  as  an  element 
in  the  Divine  government.  It  is  not  merely  auto- 
matically working  laws  which  recompense  evil  by  evil, 


302        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS    [ch.  xii. 

but  it  is  the  face  of  the  Lord  which  is  inexorably  and 
inevitably  set  *  against  them  that  do  evil.'  That  recom- 
pense is  not  hidden  away  in  the  future  behind  the 
curtain  of  death,  but  is  realised  in  the  present,  as 
every  evil-doer  too  surely  and  bitterly  experiences. 

'  Vengeance  is  mine,  I  will  repay,  saith  the  Lord.' 
God  only  has  the  right  to  recompense  the  ungodly  and 
the  sinner  as  well  as  the  righteous.  Dwelling  in  such 
a  system  as  we  do,  how  dares  any  one  take  that  work 
into  his  hands?  It  requires  perfect  knowledge  of 
the  true  evil  of  an  action,  which  no  one  has  who 
cannot  read  the  heart ;  it  requires  perfect  freedom 
from  passion ;  it  requires  perfect  immunity  from  evil 
desert  on  the  part  of  the  avenger;  in  a  word,  it  be- 
longs to  God,  and  to  Him  alone.  We  have  nothing  to 
do  with  apportioning  retribution  to  desert,  either  in 
private  actions  or  in  the  treatment  of  so-called 
criminals.  In  the  latter  our  objects  should  be  refor- 
mation and  the  safety  of  society.  If  we  add  to  these 
retribution,  we  transcend  our  functions. 

II.  Take  the  positive, — Follow  God's  way  of  meeting 
hostility  with  beneficence. 

The  hungry  enemy  is  to  be  fed,  the  thirsty  to  be 
given  drink ;  and  the  reason  is,  that  such  beneficence 
will  'heap  coals  of  fire  upon  his  head.'  The  negative 
is  not  enough.  To  abstain  from  vengeance  will  leave 
the  heart  unaffected,  and  may  simply  issue  in  the 
cessation  of  all  intercourse.  The  reason  assigned 
sounds  at  first  strange.  It  is  clear  that  the  'coals  of 
fire '  which  are  to  be  heaped  on  the  head  are  meant  to 
melt  and  soften  the  heart,  and  cause  it  to  glow  with 
love.  There  may  be  also  included  the  burning  pangs 
of  shame  felt  by  a  man  whose  evil  is  answered  by 
good.    But  these  are  secondary  and  auxiliary  to  the 


vs.  19-21]     STILL  ANOTHER  TRIPLET      303 

true  end  of  kindling  the  fire  of  love  in  his  alienated 
heart.  The  great  object  which  every  Christian  man  is 
bound  to  have  in  view  is  to  win  over  the  enemy  and 
melt  away  misconceptions  and  hostility.  It  is  not 
from  any  selfish  regard  to  one's  own  personal  ease  that 
we  are  so  to  act,  but  because  of  the  sacred  regard 
which  Christ  has  taught  us  to  cherish  for  the  blessing 
of  peace  amongst  men,  and  in  order  that  we  may 
deliver  a  brother  from  the  snare,  and  make  him  share 
in  the  joys  of  fellowship  with  God.  The  only  way 
to  burn  up  the  evil  in  his  heart  is  by  heaping  coals  of 
kindness  and  beneficence  on  his  head.  And  for  such 
an  end  it  becomes  us  to  watch  for  opportunities.  We 
have  to  mark  the  right  moment,  and  make  sure  that 
we  time  our  offer  for  food  when  he  is  hungry  and  of 
drink  when  he  thirsts ;  for  often  mal-a-propos  offers  of 
kindness  make  things  worse.  Such  is  God's  way.  His 
thunderbolts  we  cannot  grasp.  His  love  we  can  copy. 
Of  the  two  weapons  mercy  and  judgment  which  He 
holds  in  His  hand,  the  latter  is  emphatically  His  own ; 
the  former  should  be  ours  too. 

III.  In  all  life  meet  and  conquer  evil  with  good. 

This  last  precept,  'Be  not  overcome  of  evil,  but 
overcome  evil  with  good,'  is  cast  into  a  form  which 
covers  not  only  relations  to  enemies,  but  all  contact 
with  evil  of  every  kind.  It  involves  many  great 
thoughts  which  can  here  be  only  touched.  It  implies 
that  in  all  our  lives  we  have  to  fight  evil,  and  that  it 
conquers,  and  we  are  beaten  when  we  are  led  to  do  it. 
It  is  only  conquered  by  being  transformed  into  good. 
We  overcome  our  foes  when  we  win  them  to  be  lovers. 
We  overcome  our  temptations  to  doing  wrong  when 
we  make  them  occasions  for  developing  virtues ;  we 
overcome  the  evil  of  sorrow  when  we  use  it  to  bring 


304       EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS   [ch.xiii. 

us  nearer  to  God ;  we  overcome  the  men  around  us 
when  we  are  not  seduced  by  their  example  to  evil,  but 
attract  them  to  goodness  by  ours. 

Evil  is  only  thus  transformed  by  the  positive  exercise 
of  goodness  on  our  part.  We  have  seen  this  in  regard 
to  enemies  in  the  preceding  remarks.  In  regard  to 
other  forms  of  evil,  it  is  often  better  not  to  fight  them 
directly,  but  to  occupy  the  mind  and  heart  with  posi- 
tive truth  and  goodness,  and  the  will  and  hands  with 
active  service.  A  rusty  knife  will  not  be  cleaned  so 
effectually  by  much  scouring  as  by  strenuous  use. 
Our  lives  are  to  be  moulded  after  the  great  example  of 
Him,  who  at  almost  the  last  moment  of  His  earthly 
course  said,  *  Be  of  good  cheer :  I  have  overcome  the 
world.'  Jesus  seeks  to  conquer  evil  in  us  all,  and 
counts  that  He  has  conquered  it  when  He  has  changed 
it  into  love. 


LOVE  AND  THE  DAY 

'  Owe  no  man  anything,  but  to  love  one  another :  for  he  thatloveth  another  hath 
fulfilled  the  law.  9.  For  this,  Thou  shalt  not  commit  adultery.  Thou  shalt  not  kill. 
Thou  shalt  not  steal,  Thou  shalt  not  bear  false  witness,  Tb'^n  shalt  not  covet ;  and 
if  there  be  any  other  commandment  it  is  briefly  comprenenaed  in  this  saying, 
namely,  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbour  as  thyself.  10.  Love  worketh  no  ill  to  his 
neighbour :  therefore  love  is  the  fulfilling  of  the  law.  11.  And  that,  knowing  the 
time,  that  now  it  is  high  time  to  awake  out  of  sleep :  for  now  is  our  salvation 
nearer  than  when  we  believed.  12.  The  night  is  far  spent,  the  day  is  at  hand :  let 
us  therefore  cast  off  the  works  of  darkness,  and  let  us  put  on  the  armour  of  light. 
13.  Let  us  walk  honestly,  as  in  the  day ;  not  in  rioting  and  drunkenness,  not  in 
chambering  and  wantonness,  not  in  strife  and  envying :  14.  But  put  ye  on  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  make  not  provision  for  the  flesh,  to  fulfil  the  lusts  thereof.' 
—Romans  xiii.  8-li. 

The  two  paragraphs  of  this  passage  are  but  slightly 
connected.  The  first  inculcates  the  obligation  of 
universal  love ;  and  the  second  begins  by  suggesting, 
as  a  motive  for  the  discharge  of  that  duty,  the  near 


V8. 8-U]         LOVE  AND  THE  DAY  305 

approach  of  *  the  day.'  The  light  of  that  dawn  draws 
Paul's  eyes  and  leads  him  to  wider  exhortations  on 
Christian  purity  as  befitting  the  children  of  light. 

L  Verses  8-10  set  forth  the  obligation  of  a  love  which 
embraces  all  men,  and  comprehends  all  duties  to  them. 
The  Apostle  has  just  been  laying  down  the  general 
exhortation,  '  Pay  every  man  his  due,'  and  applying  it 
especially  to  the  Christian's  relation  to  civic  rulers.  He 
repeats  it  in  a  negative  form,  and  bases  on  it  the 
obligation  of  loving  every  man.  That  love  is  further 
represented  as  the  sum  and  substance  of  the  law. 
Thus  Paul  brings  together  two  thoughts  which  are 
often  dealt  with  as  mutually  exclusive, — namely,  love 
and  law.  He  does  not  talk  sentimentalisms  about  the 
beauty  of  charity  and  the  like,  but  lays  it  down,  as  a 
'hard  and  fast  rule,'  that  we  are  bound  to  love  every 
man  with  whom  we  come  in  contact ;  or,  as  the  Greek 
has  it,  *  the  other.' 

That  is  the  first  plain  truth  taught  here.  Love  is 
not  an  emotion  which  we  may  indulge  or  not,  as  we 
please.  It  is  not  to  select  its  objects  according  to  our 
estimate  of  their  lovableness  or  goodness.  But  we  are 
bound  to  love,  and  that  all  round,  without  distinction 
of  beautiful  or  ugly,  good  or  bad.  'A  hard  saying; 
who  can  hear  it  ? '  Every  man  is  our  creditor  for  that 
debt.  He  does  not  get  his  due  from  us  unless  he  gets 
lo\e.  Note,  further,  that  the  debt  of  love  is  never 
discharged.  After  all  payments  it  still  remains  owing. 
There  is  no  paying  in  full  of  all  demands,  and,  as  Bengel 
says,  it  is  an  undying  debt.  We  are  apt  to  weary  of 
expending  love,  especially  on  unworthy  recipients,  and 
to  think  that  we  have  wiped  off  all  claims,  and  it  may 
often  be  true  that  our  obligations  to  others  compel  us 
to  cease  helping  one;  but  if  we  laid  Paul's  words  to 

u 


306       EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS   [ch.  xni. 

heart,  our  patience  would  be  longer-breathed,  and  we 
should  not  be  so  soon  ready  to  shut  hearts  and  purses 
against  even  unthankful  suitors. 

Further,  Paul  here  teaches  us  that  this  debt  {debitumt 
'duty')  of  love  includes  all  duties.  It  is  the  fulfilling 
of  the  law,  inasmuch  as  it  will  secure  the  conduct 
which  the  law  prescribes.  The  Mosaic  law  itself  indi- 
cates this,  since  it  recapitulates  the  various  command- 
ments of  the  second  table,  in  the  one  precept  of  love  to 
our  neighbour  (Lev.  xix.  18).  Law  enjoins  but  has 
no  power  to  get  its  injunctions  executed.  Love  enables 
and  inclines  to  do  all  that  law  prescribes,  and  to  avoid 
all  that  it  prohibits.  The  multiplicity  of  duties  is 
melted  into  unity ;  and  that  unity,  when  it  comes  into 
act,  unfolds  into  whatsoever  things  are  lovely  and  of 
good  report.  Love  is  the  mother  tincture  which, 
variously  diluted  and  manipulated,  yields  all  potent 
and  fragrant  draughts.  It  is  the  white  light  which 
the  prism  of  daily  life  resolves  into  its  component 
colours. 

But  Paul  seems  to  limit  the  action  of  love  here  to 
negative  doing  no  ill.  That  is  simply  because  the 
commandments  are  mostly  negative,  and  that  they  are 
is  a  sad  token  of  the  lovelessness  natural  to  us  all. 
But  do  we  love  ourselves  only  negatively,  or  are  we 
satisfied  with  doing  ourselves  no  harm?  That  strin- 
gent pattern  of  love  to  others  not  only  prescribes  degree, 
but  manner.  It  teaches  that  true  love  to  men  is  not 
weak  indulgence,  but  must  sometimes  chastise,  and 
thwart,  and  always  must  seek  their  good,  and  not 
merely  their  gratification. 

Whoever  will  honestly  seek  to  apply  that  negative 
precept  of  working  no  ill  to  others,  will  find  it  positive 
enough.    We  harm  men  when  we  fail  to  help  them. 


vs.  8-14]         LOVE  AND  THE  DAY  807 

If  we  can  do  them  a  kindness,  and  do  it  not,  we  do  them 
ill.  Non-activity  for  good  is  activity  for  evil.  Surely, 
nothing  can  be  plainer  than  the  bearing  of  this  teaching 
on  the  Christian  duty  as  to  intoxicants.  If  by  using 
these  a  Christian  puts  a  stumbling-block  in  the  way  of 
a  weak  will,  then  he  is  working  ill  to  his  neighbour, 
and  that  argues  absence  of  love,  and  that  is  dishonest, 
shirking  payment  of  a  plain  debt. 

II.  The  great  stimulus  to  love  and  to  all  purity  is 
set  forth  as  being  the  near  approach  of  the  day  (verses 
11-14).  'The  day,'  in  Paul's  writing,  has  usually  the 
sense  of  the  great  day  of  the  Lord's  return,  and  may 
have  that  meaning  here ;  for,  as  Jesus  has  told  us, '  it 
is  not  for '  even  inspired  Apostles  '  to  know  the  times 
or  the  seasons,'  and  it  is  no  dishonour  to  apostolic 
inspiration  to  assign  to  it  the  limits  which  the  Lord  has 
assigned. 

But,  whether  we  take  this  as  the  meaning  of  the 
phrase,  or  regard  it  simply  as  pointing  to  the  time  of 
death  as  the  dawning  of  heaven's  day,  the  weight  of 
the  motive  is  unaffected.  The  language  is  vividly 
picturesque.  The  darkness  is  thinning,  and  the  black- 
ness turning  grey.  Light  begins  to  stir  and  whisper. 
A  band  of  soldiers  lies  asleep,  and,  as  the  twilight 
begins  to  dawn,  the  bugle  call  summons  them  to  awake, 
to  throw  off  their  night-gear, — namely,  the  works  con- 
genial to  darkness, — and  to  brace  on  their  armour  of 
light.  Light  may  here  be  regarded  as  the  material  of 
which  the  glistering  armour  is  made;  but,  more  pro- 
bably, the  expression  means  weapons  appropriate  to 
the  light. 

Such  being  the  general  picture,  we  note  the  fact 
which  underlies  the  whole  representation;  namely, 
that  every  life  is  a  definite  whole  which  has  a  fixed 


808       EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS   [ch.  xm. 

end.  Jesus  said,  'We  must  work  the  works  of  Him 
that  sent  Me,  while  it  is  day :  the  night  cometh.'  Paul 
uses  the  opposite  metaphors  in  these  verses.  But, 
though  the  two  sayings  are  opposite  in  form,  they  are 
identical  in  substance.  In  both,  the  predominant 
thought  is  that  of  the  rapidly  diminishing  space  of 
earthly  life,  and  the  complete  unlikeness  to  it  of  the 
future.  We  stand  like  men  on  a  sandbank  with  an 
incoming  tide,  and  every  wash  of  the  waves  eats  away 
its  edges,  and  presently  it  will  yield  below  our  feet. 
We  forget  this  for  th  o  most  part,  and  perhaps  it  is  not 
well  that  it  should  be  ever  present ;  but  that  it  should 
never  be  present  is  madness  and  sore  loss. 

Paul,  in  his  intense  moral  earnestness,  in  verse  13, 
bids  us  regard  ourselves  as  already  in  'the  day,'  and 
shape  our  conduct  as  if  it  shone  around  us  and  all 
things  were  made  manifest  by  its  light.  The  sins  to  be 
put  off  are  very  gross  and  palpable.  They  are  for  the 
most  part  sins  of  flesh,  such  as  even  these  Roman 
Christians  had  to  be  warned  against,  and  such  as  need 
to  be  manifested  by  the  light  even  now  among  many 
professing  Christian  communities. 

But  Paul  has  one  more  word  to  say.  If  he  stopped 
without  it,  he  would  have  said  little  to  help  men  who 
are  crying  out,  'How  am  I  to  strip  off  this  clinging 
evil,  which  seems  my  skin  rather  than  my  clothing? 
How  am  I  to  put  on  that  flashing  panoply  ? '  There  is 
but  one  way, — put  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  If  we 
commit  ourselves  to  Him  by  faith,  and  front  our 
temptations  in  His  strength,  and  thus,  as  it  were,  wrap 
ourselves  in  Him,  He  will  be  to  us  dress  and  armour, 
strength  and  righteousness.  Our  old  self  will  fall 
away,  and  we  shall  take  no  forethought  for  the  flesh, 
to  fulfil  the  lusts  thereof. 


SALVATION  NEARER 

'.  .  .'Now  Is  our  salvation  nearer  than  when  we  believed.'— Romans  xiil.  11. 

There  is  no  doubt,  I  suppose,  that  the  Apostle,  in 
common  with  the  whole  of  the  early  Church,  enter- 
tained more  or  less  consistently  the  expectation  of 
living  to  witness  the  second  coming  of  Jesus  Christ. 
There  are  in  Paul's  letters  passages  which  look  both  in 
the  direction  of  that  anticipation,  and  in  the  other  one 
of  expecting  to  taste  death.  '  We  which  are  alive  and 
remain  unto  the  coming  of  the  Lord,'  he  says  twice  in 
one  chapter.  *  I  am  ready  to  be  offered,  and  the  hour  of 
my  departure  is  at  hand,'  he  says  in  his  last  letter. 

Now  this  contrariety  of  anticipation  is  but  the  natural 
result  of  what  our  Lord  Himself  said,  '  It  is  not  for  you 
to  know  the  times  and  the  seasons,'  and  no  one,  who  is 
content  to  form  his  doctrine  of  the  knowledge  result- 
ing from  inspiration  from  the  words  of  Jesus  Christ 
Himself,  need  stumble  in  the  least  degree  in  recognis- 
ing the  plain  fact  that  Paul  and  his  brother  Apostles 
did  not  know  when  the  Master  was  to  come.  Christ 
Himself  had  told  them  that  there  was  a  chamber 
locked  against  their  entrance,  and  therefore  we  do  not 
need  to  think  that  it  militates  against  the  authoritative 
inspiration  of  these  early  teachers  of  the  Church,  if 
they,  too,  searched  'what  manner  of  time  the  Spirit 
which  was  in  them  did  signify  when  it  testified  before- 
hand .  .  .  the  glory  that  should  follow.' 

Now,  my  text  is  evidently  the  result  of  the  former  of 
these  two  anticipations,  viz.  that  Paul  and  his  genera- 
tion were  probably  to  see  the  coming  of  the  Lord  from 
heaven.    And  to  him  the  thought  that  •  the  night  was 

tot 


310       EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS   [ch.  xiii. 

far  spent,'  as  the  context  says,  'and  the  day  was  at 
hand,'  underlay  his  most  buoyant  hope,  and  was  the 
inspiration  and  motive-spring  of  his  most  strenuous 
effort. 

Now,  our  relation  to  the  closing  moments  of  our  own 
earthly  lives,  to  the  fact  of  death,  is  precisely  the  same 
as  that  of  the  Apostle  and  his  brethren  to  the  coming 
of  the  Lord.  We,  too,  stand  in  that  position  of  partial 
ignorance,  and  for  us  practically  the  words  of  my  text, 
and  all  their  parallel  words,  point  to  how  we  should 
think  of,  and  how  we  should  be  affected  by,  the  end  to 
which  we  are  coming.  And  this  is  the  grand  charac- 
teristic of  the  Christian  vie  w  of  that  last  solemn  moment. 
'  Now  is  our  salvation  nearer  than  when  we  believed.' 
So  I  would  note,  first  of  all,  what  these  words  teach 
us  should  be  the  Christian  view  of  our  own  end ;  and, 
second,  to  what  conduct  that  view  should  lead  us. 

I.  The  Christian  view  of  death. 

•Now  is  our  salvation  nearer.'  We  have  to  think 
away  by  faith  and  hope  all  the  grim  externals  of  death, 
and  to  get  to  the  heart  of  the  thing.  And  then  every- 
thing that  is  repulsive,  everything  that  makes  flesh  and 
blood  shrink,  disappears  and  is  evaporated,  and  beneath 
the  folds  of  his  black  garment,  there  is  revealed  God's 
last,  sweetest,  most  triumphant  angel-messenger  to 
Christian  souls,  the  great,  strong,  silent  Angel  of 
Death,  and  he  carries  in  his  hand  the  gift  of  a  full 
salvation.  That  is  what  our  Apostle  rose  to  the 
rapture  of  beholding,  when  he  knew  that  the  thought 
of  his  surviving  till  Christ  came  again  must  be  put 
away,  and  when  close  to  the  last  moment  of  his  life,  he 
said,  '  The  Lord  shall  deliver  me,  and  save  me  into  His 
everlasting  kingdom.'  What  was  the  deliverance  and 
being  saved  that  he  expected  and  expresses  in  these 


v.ll]  SALVATION  NEARER  311 

words  ?  Immunity  from  punishment  ?  Escape  from 
the  headsman's  axe  ?  Being  *  delivered  from  the  mouth 
of  the  lion,'  the  persecuting  fangs  of  the  bloody  Nero  ? 
By  no  means.  He  knew  that  death  was  at  hand,  and 
he  said, '  He  will  save  me ' — not  from  it,  but  through  it 
— •  into  His  everlasting  kingdom.'  And  so  in  the  words 
of  my  text  we  may  say — though  Paul  did  not  mean 
them  so — as  we  see  the  distance  between  us,  and  that 
certain  close,  dwindling,  dwindling,  dwindling :  '  Now,' 
as  moment  after  moment  ticks  itself  into  the  past, 
*  now  is  our  salvation  nearer  than  when  we  believed.' 
Children,  when  they  are  getting  near  their  holidays, 
take  strips  of  paper,  and  tear  off  a  piece  as  each  day 
passes.  And  as  we  tear  off  the  days  let  us  feel  that  we 
are  drawing  closer  to  our  home,  and  that  the  blessed- 
ness laid  up  for  us  in  it  is  drawing  nearer  to  us.  '  Our 
salvation,'  not  our  destruction,  our  fuller  life,  not  in 
any  true  sense  of  the  word  our  *  death,'  is  '  nearer  than 
when  we  believed.' 

But  some  one  may  say,  *  Is  a  man  not  saved  till  after 
he  is  dead  ? '  Is  salvation  future,  not  coming  till  after 
the  grave  ?  No,  certainly  not.  There  are  three  aspects 
of  that  word  in  Scripture.  Sometimes  the  New  Testa- 
ment writers  treat  salvation  as  past,  and  represent  a 
Christian  as  being  invested  with  the  possession  of  it 
all  at  the  very  moment  of  his  first  faith.  That  is  true, 
that  whatever  is  yet  to  be  evolved  from  what  is  given 
to  the  poorest  and  foulest  sinner,  in  the  moment  of  his 
initial  faith  in  Christ,  there  is  nothing  to  be  added  to 
it.  The  salvation  which  the  penitent  thief  received  on 
the  cross  is  all  the  salvation  that  he  was  ever  to  get. 
But  out  of  it  there  came  welling  and  welling  and  well- 
ing, when  he  had  passed  into  the  region  '  where  beyond 
these  voices  there  is  peace' — there  came  welling  out 


312       EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS   [ch.  xm. 

from  that  inexhaustible  fountain  which  was  opened  in 
him  all  the  fullnesses  of  an  eternal  progress  in  the 
heavens.  And  so  it  is  with  us.  Salvation  is  a  past 
gift  which  we  received  when  we  believed. 

But  in  another  aspect,  which  is  also  emphatically 
stated  in  Scripture,  it  is  a  progressive  process,  and  not 
merely  a  gift  bestowed  once  for  all  in  the  past.  I 
do  not  dwell  upon  that  thought,  but  just  remind  you 
of  a  turn  of  expression  which  occurs  in  various  connec- 
tions more  than  once.  *  The  Lord  added  to  the  Church 
daily  such  as  were  being  saved,'  says  Luke.  Still  more 
emphatically  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians,  the 
Apostle  puts  into  antithesis  the  two  progressive  pro- 
cesses, and  speaks  of  the  Gospel  as  being  preached,  and 
being  a  savour  of  life  unto  life  '  to  them  that  are  being 
saved,'  and  a  savour  of  destruction  '  to  them  that  are 
being  lost.'  No  moral  or  spiritual  condition  is  stereo- 
typed or  stagnant.  It  is  all  progressive.  And  so  the 
salvation  that  is  given  once  for  all  is  ever  being  un- 
folded, and  the  Christian  life  on  earth  is  the  unfolding 
of  it. 

But  in  another  aspect  still,  such  as  is  presented  in  my 
text,  and  in  other  parallel  passages,  that  salvation  is 
regarded  as  lying  on  the  other  side  of  the  flood,  because 
the  manifestations  of  it  there,  the  evolving  there  of 
what  is  in  it,  and  the  great  gifts  that  come  then,  are  so 
transcendently  above  all  even  of  our  selectest  experi- 
ences here,  that  they  are,  as  it  were,  new,  though  still 
their  roots  are  in  the  old.  The  salvation  which  cul- 
minates in  the  absolute  removal  from  our  whole  being 
of  all  manner  of  evil,  whether  it  be  sorrow  or  sin,  and 
in  the  conclusive  bestowal  upon  us  of  all  manner  of 
good,  whether  it  be  righteousness  or  joy,  and  which  has 
for  its  seal '  the  adoption,  to  wit,  the  redemption  of  the 


v.U]  SALVATION  NEARER  813 

body,'  so  that  body,  soul,  and  spirit '  make  one  music  as 
before,  but  vaster,'  is  so  far  beyond  the  germs  of  itself 
which  here  we  experience  that  my  text  and  its  like  are 
amply  vindicated.  And  the  man  who  is  most  fully 
persuaded  and  conscious  that  he  possesses  the  salva- 
tion of  God,  and  most  fully  and  blessedly  aware  that 
that  salvation  is  gradually  gaining  power  in  his  life,  is 
the  very  man  who  will  most  feel  that  between  its 
highest  manifestation  on  earth,  and  its  lowest  in  the 
heavens  there  is  such  a  gulf  as  that  the  wine  that  he 
will  drink  there  at  the  Father's  table  is  indeed  new 
wine.  And  so  *is  our  salvation  nearer,'  though  we 
already  possess  it, '  than  when  we  believed.' 

Dear  brethren,  if  these  things  be  true,  and  if  to  die  is 
to  be  saved  into  the  kingdom,  do  not  two  thoughts 
result  ?  The  one  is  that  that  blessed  consummation 
should  occupy  more  of  our  thoughts  than  I  am  afraid 
it  does.  As  life  goes  on,  and  the  space  dwindles 
between  us  and  it,  we  older  people  naturally  fall  into 
the  way,  unless  we  are  fools,  of  more  seriously  and 
frequently  turning  our  thoughts  to  the  end.  I  suppose 
the  last  week  of  a  voyage  to  Australia  has  far  more 
thoughts  in  it  about  the  landing  next  week  than  the 
two  or  three  first  days  of  beating  down  the  English 
Channel  had.  I  do  not  want  to  put  old  heads  on  young 
shoulders  in  this  or  in  any  other  respect.  But  sure  I 
am  that  it  does  belong  very  intimately  to  the  strength 
of  our  Christian  characters  that  we  should,  as  the 
Psalmist  says,  be  '  wise '  to  *  consider  our  latter  end.' 

The  other  thought  that  follows  is  as  plain,  viz.  that 
that  anticipation  should  always  be  buoyant,  hopeful, 
joyous.  We  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  sad  aspects 
of  parting  from  earth.  They  are  all  but  non-existent 
for  the  Christian  consciousness,  when  it  is  as  vigorous 


314       EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS    [ch.  xiii. 

and  God-directed  as  it  ought  to  be.  They  drop  into 
the  background,  and  sometimes  are  lost  to  sight  alto- 
gether. Remember  how  this  Apostle,  when  he  does 
think  about  death,  looks  at  it  with — I  was  going  to  quote 
words  which  may  strike  you  as  being  inappropriate — '  a 
frolic  welcome ' ;  how,  at  all  events,  he  is  neither  a  bit 
afraid  of  it,  nor  does  he  see  in  it  anything  from  which  to 
shrink.  He  speaks  of  being  with  Christ,  which  is  far 
better ;  '  absent  from  the  body,  present  with  the  Lord ' ; 
'  the  dissolution  of  the  earthly  house  of  this  tabernacle ' — 
the  tumbling  down  of  the  old  clay  cottage  in  order  that 
a  stately  palace  of  marble  and  precious  stones  may  be 
reared  upon  its  site ;  '  the  hour  of  my  departure  is  at 
hand  ;  I  have  finished  the  fight.'  Peter,  too,  chimes  in 
with  his  words :  '  My  exodus  ;  my  departure,'  and  both 
of  the  two  are  looking,  if  not  longingly,  at  all  events 
without  a  tremor  of  the  eyelid,  into  the  very  eyeballs 
of  the  messenger  whom  most  men  feel  so  hideous.  Is 
it  not  a  wonderful  gift  to  Christian  souls  that  by  faith 
in  Jesus  Christ,  the  realm  in  which  their  hope  can 
expatiate  is  more  than  doubled,  and  annexes  the  dim 
lands  beyond  the  frontier  of  death  ?  Dear  friends,  if 
we  are  living  in  Christ,  the  thought  of  the  end  and  that 
here  we  are  absent  from  home,  ought  to  be  infinitely 
sweet,  of  whatever  superficial  terrors  this  poor,  shrink- 
ing fiesh  may  still  be  conscious.  And  I  am  sure  that 
the  nearer  we  get  to  our  Saviour,  and  the  more  we 
realise  the  joyous  possession  of  salvation  as  already 
ours,  and  the  more  we  are  conscious  of  the  expanding 
of  that  gift  in  our  hearts,  the  more  we  shall  be  delivered 
from  that  fear  of  death  which  makes  men  all  their 
'lifetime  subject  to  bondage.'  So  I  beseech  you  to  aim 
at  this,  that,  when  you  look  forward,  the  furthest  thing 
you  see  on  the  horizon  of  earth  may  be  that  great 


V.  11]  SALVATION  NEARER  315 

Angel  of  Death  coming  to  save  you  into  the  everlast- 
ing kingdom. 

Now,  just  a  word  about 

II.  The  conduct  to  which  such  a  hope  should  incite. 

The  Apostle  puts  it  very  plainly  in  the  context,  and 
we  need  but  expand  in  a  word  or  two  what  he  teaches 
us  there.  'And  that  knowing  the  time,  that  now  it  is 
high  time  to  awake  out  of  sleep,  for  now  is  our  salva- 
tion nearer  than  when  we  believed.'  To  what  does  he 
refer  by  '  that '  ?  The  whole  of  the  practical  exhorta- 
tions to  a  Christian  life  which  have  been  given  before. 
Everything  that  is  duty  becomes  tenfold  more  stringent 
and  imperative  when  we  apprehend  the  true  meaning 
of  that  last  moment.  They  tell  us  that  it  is  unwhole- 
some to  be  thinking  about  death  and  the  beyond, 
because  to  do  so  takes  away  interest  from  much  of  our 
present  occupations  and  weakens  energy.  If  there  is 
anything  from  which  a  man  is  wrenched  away  because 
he  steadily  contemplates  the  fact  of  being  wrenched 
away  altogether  from  everything  before  long,  it  is 
something  that  he  had  better  be  wrenched  from.  And 
if  there  be  any  occupations  which  dwindle  into 
nothingness,  and  into  which  a  man  cannot  for  the 
life  of  him  fling  himself  with  any  thoroughgoing  en- 
thusiasm or  interest,  if  once  the  thought  of  death  stirs 
in  him,  depend  upon  it  they  are  occupations  which  are 
in  themselves  contemptible  and  unworthy.  All  good 
aims  will  gain  greater  power  over  us ;  we  shall  have 
a  saner  estimate  of  what  is  worth  living  for  ;  we  shall 
have  a  new  standard  of  what  is  the  relative  import- 
ance of  things;  and  if  some  that  looked  very  great 
turn  out  to  be  very  small  when  we  let  that  searching 
light  in  upon  them,  and  others  which  seemed  very  in- 
Bignificant  spring  suddenly  up  into  dominating  magni- 


316       EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS   [ch.  xiii. 

tude — that  new  and  truer  perspective  will  be  all  clear 
gain.  The  more  we  feel  that  our  salvation  is  sweeping 
towards  us,  as  it  were,  from  the  throne  of  God  through 
the  blue  abysses,  the  more  diligently  we  shall  'work 
while  it  is  called  day,'  and  the  more  earnestly  we  shall 
seek,  when  the  Saviour  and  His  salvation  come,  to  be 
found  with  loins  girt  for  all  strenuous  work,  and  lamps 
burning  in  all  the  brightness  of  the  light  of  a  Christian 
character. 

Further,  says  Paul,  this  hopeful,  cheerful  contempla- 
tion of  approaching  salvation  should  lead  us  to  cast  off 
the  evil,  and  to  put  on  the  good.  You  will  remember 
the  heart-stirring  imagery  which  the  Apostle  employs 
in  the  context,  where  he  says,  '  The  day  is  at  hand  ;  let 
us  therefore  fling  off  the  works  of  darkness ' — as  men 
in  the  morning,  when  the  daylight  comes  through  the 
window,  and  makes  them  lift  their  eyelids,  fling  off 
their  night-gear — 'and  let  us  put  on  the  armour  of 
light.'  We  are  soldiers,  and  must  be  clad  in  what  will 
be  bullet-proof,  and  will  turn  a  sword's  edge.  And 
where  shall  steel  of  celestial  temper  be  found  that  can 
resist  the  fiery  darts  shot  at  the  Christian  soldier  ?  His 
armour  must  be  'of  light.'  Clad  in  the  radiance  of 
Christian  character  he  will  be  invulnerable.  And  how 
can  we,  who  have  robed  ourselves  in  the  works  of 
darkness,  either  cast  them  off  or  array  ourselves  in  ^ 
sparkling  armour  of  light  ?  Paul  tells  us,  '  Put  ye  on 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  make  not  provision  for  the 
flesh.'  The  picture  is  of  a  camp  of  sleeping  soldiers  ;  the 
night  wears  thin,  the  streaks  of  saffron  are  coming  in 
the  dawning  east.  One  after  another  the  sleepers 
awake;  they  cast  aside  their  night-gear,  and  they 
brace  on  the  armour  that  sparkles  in  the  beams  of  the 
morning  sun.     So  they  are  ready  when  the  trumpet 


v.li]  THE  SOLDIER'S  MORNING-CALL   317 

sounds  the  reveille,  and  with  the  morning  conies  the 
Captain  of  the  Lord's  host,  and  with  the  Captain  conies 
the  perfecting  of  the  salvation  which  is  drawing  nearer 
and  nearer  to  us,  as  our  moments  glide  through  our 
fingers  like  the  beads  of  a  rosary.  Many  men  think  of 
death  and  fear ;  the  Christian  should  think  of  death — 
and  hope. 


THE  SOLDIER'S  MORNING-CALL 

*  Let  us  put  on  the  armour  of  light.'— Romans  xiii.  12. 

It  is  interesting  to  notice  that  the  metaphor  of  the 
Christian  armour  occurs  in  Paul's  letters  throughout 
his  whole  course.  It  first  appears,  in  a  very  rudi- 
mentary form,  in  the  earliest  of  the  Epistles,  that  to 
the  Thessalonians.  It  appears  here  in  a  letter  which 
belongs  to  the  middle  of  his  career,  and  it  appears 
finally  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians,  in  its  fully 
developed  and  drawn-out  shape,  at  almost  the  end  of 
his  work.  So  we  may  fairly  suppose  that  it  was  one 
of  his  familiar  thoughts.  Here  it  has  a  very  picturesque 
addition,  for  the  picture  that  is  floating  before  his  vivid 
imagination  is  that  of  a  company  of  soldiers,  roused 
by  the  morning  bugle,  casting  off  their  night-gear 
because  the  day  is  beginning  to  dawn,  and  bracing  on 
the  armour  that  sparkles  in  the  light  of  the  rising  sun. 
'  That,'  says  Paul,  *  is  what  you  Christian  people  ought 
to  be.  Can  you  not  hear  the  notes  of  the  reveille? 
The  night  is  far  spent ;  the  day  is  at  hand ;  therefore 
let  us  put  off  the  works  of  darkness — the  night-gear 
that  was  fit  for  those  hours  of  slumber.  Toss  it  away, 
and  put  on  the  armour  that  belongs  to  the  day.' 
Now,  Lam  not  going  to  ask  or  try  to  answer  the 


318       EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS   [ch.  xiii. 

question  of  how  far  this  Apostolic  exhortation  is  based 
upon  the  Apostle's  expectation  that  the  world  was 
drawing  near  its  end.  That  does  not  matter  at  all  for 
us  at  present,  for  the  fact  which  he  expresses  as  the 
foundation  of  this  exhortation  is  true  about  us  all, 
and  about  our  position  in  the  midst  of  these  fleeting 
shadows  round  us.  We  are  hastening  to  the  dawning 
of  the  true  day..  And  so  let  me  try  to  emphasise  the 
exhortation  here,  old  and  threadbare  and  commonplace 
as  it  is,  because  we  all  need  it,  at  whatever  point  of 
life's  journey  we  have  arrived. 

Now,  the  first  thing  that  strikes  me  is  that  the  garb 
for  the  man  expectant  of  the  day  is  armour. 

We  might  have  anticipated  something  very  different 
in  accordance  with  the  thoughts  that  Paul's  imagery 
here  suggests,  about  the  difference  between  the  night 
which  is  so  swiftly  passing,  and  is  full  of  enemies  and 
dangers,  and  the  day  which  is  going  to  dawn,  and 
is  full  of  light  and  peace  and  joy.  We  might  have 
expected  that  he  would  have  said,  '  Let  us  put  on  the 
festal  robes.'  But  no!  'The  night  is  far  spent;  the 
day  is  at  hand.'  But  the  dress  that  befits  the  expec- 
tant of  the  day  is  not  yet  the  robe  of  the  feast,  but  it 
is  'the  armour'  which,  put  into  plain  words,  means  just 
this,  that  there  is  fighting,  always  fighting,  to  be  done. 
If  you  are  ever  to  belong  to  the  day,  you  have  to 
equip  yourselves  now  with  armour  and  weapons.  I  do 
not  need  to  dwell  upon  that,  but  I  do  wish  to  insist 
upon  this  fact,  that  after  all  that  may  be  truly  said 
about  growth  in  grace,  and  the  peaceful  approxima- 
tion towards  perfection  in  the  Christian  character, 
we  cannot  dispense  with  the  other  element  in  progress, 
and  that  is  fighting.  We  have  to  struggle  for  every 
step.     Growth  is  not  enough  to  define  completely  the 


T.12]  THE  SOLDIER'S  MORNING-CALL  319 

process  by  which  men  become  conformed  to  the  image  of 
the  Father,  and  are  '  made  meet  to  be  partakers  of  the 
inheritance  of  the  saints  in  light.'  Growth  does  ex- 
press part  of  it,  but  only  a  part.  Conflict  is  needed 
to  come  in,  before  you  have  the  whole  aspect  of 
Christian  progress  before  your  minds.  For  there  will 
always  be  antagonism  without  and  traitors  within. 
There  will  always  be  recalcitrant  horses  that  need  to 
be  whipped  up,  and  jibbing  horses  that  need  to  be 
dragged  forward,  and  shying  ones  that  need  to  be 
violently  coerced  and  kept  in  the  traces.  Conflict  is 
the  law,  because  of  the  enemies,  and  because  of  the 
conspiracy  between  the  weakness  within  and  the  things 
without  that  appeal  to  it. 

We  hear  a  great  deal  to-day  about  being  '  sanctified 
by  faith.'  I  believe  that  as  much  as  any  man,  but  the 
office  of  faith  is  to  bring  us  the  power  that  cleanses, 
and  the  application  of  that  power  requires  our  work, 
and  it  requires  our  fighting.  So  it  is  not  enough  to 
say, '  Trust  for  your  sanctifying  as  you  have  trusted  for 
your  justifying  and  acceptance,'  but  you  have  to  work 
out  what  you  get  by  your  faith,  and  you  will  never 
work  it  out  unless  you  fight  against  your  unworthy 
self,  and  the  temptations  of  the  world.  The  garb  of 
the  candidate  for  the  day  is  armour. 

And  there  is  another  side  to  that  same  thought,  and 
that  is,  the  more  vivid  our  expectations  of  that  blessed 
dawn  the  more  complete  should  be  our  bracing  on  of 
the  armour.  The  anticipation  of  that  future,  in  very 
many  instances,  in  the  Christian  Church,  has  led  to 
precisely  the  opposite  state  of  mind.  It  has  induced 
people  to  drop  into  mere  fantastic  sentiment,  or  to 
ignore  this  contemptible  present,  and  think  that  they 
have  nothing  to  do  with  it,  and  are  only  '  waiting  for 


320       EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS   [ch.  xiii. 

the  coming  of  the  Lord,'  and  the  like.  Paul  says,  •  Just 
because,  on  your  eastern  horizon,  you  can  see  the  pink 
flush  that  tells  that  the  night  is  gone,  and  the  day  is 
coming,  therefore  do  not  be  a  sentimentalist,  do  not  be 
idle,  do  not  be  negligent  or  contemptuous  of  the  daily 
tasks;  but  because  you  see  it,  put  on  the  armour  of 
light,  and  whether  the  time  between  the  rising  of  the 
whole  orb  of  the  sun  on  the  horizon  be  long  or  short, 
fill  the  hours  with  triumphant  conflict.  Put  on  the 
whole  armour  of  light.' 

Again,  note  here  what  the  armour  is.  Of  course  that 
phrase,  'the  armour  of  light,'  may  be  nothing  more 
than  a  little  bit  of  colour  put  in  by  a  picturesque 
imagination,  and  may  suggest  simply  how  the  burnished 
steel  would  shine  and  glitter  when  the  sunbeams  smote 
it,  and  the  glistening  armour,  like  that  of  Spenser's 
Red  Cross  Knight,  would  make  a  kind  of  light  in  the 
dark  cave,  into  which  he  went.  Or  it  may  mean  '  the 
armour  that  befits  the  light ' ;  as  is  perhaps  suggested 
by  the  antithesis  'the  works  of  darkness,'  which  are 
to  be  '  put  off.'  These  are  works  that  match  the  dark- 
ness, and  similarly  the  armour  is  to  be  the  armour 
that  befits  the  light,  and  that  can  flash  back  its  beams. 
But  I  think  there  is  more  than  that  in  the  expression. 
I  would  rather  take  the  phrase  to  be  parallel  to  another 
of  this  Apostle's,  who  speaks  in  2nd  Corinthians  of  the 
•armour  of  righteousness  on  the  right  hand  and  on 
the  left.'  'Light'  makes  the  armour,  'righteousness' 
makes  the  armour.  The  two  phrases  say  the  same 
thing,  the  one  in  plain  English,  the  other  in  figure, 
which  being  brought  down  to  daily  life  is  just  this, 
that  the  true  armour  and  weapon  of  a  Christian  man 
is  Christian  character.  'Whatsoever  things  are  true, 
whatsoever  things  are  lovely,  whatsoever  things  are 


V.12]  THE  SOLDIER'S  MORNING-CALL  321 

of  good  report,'  these  are  the  pieces  of  armour,  and 
these  are  the  weapons  which  we  are  to  wield.  A 
Christian  man  fights  against  evil  in  himself  by  putting 
on  good.  The  true  way  to  empty  the  heart  of  sin  is  to 
fill  the  heart  with  righteousness.  The  lances  of  the 
light,  according  to  the  significant  old  Greek  myth,  slew 
pythons.  The  armour  is  'righteousness  on  the  right 
hand  and  on  the  left.'  Stick  to  plain,  simple,  homely 
duties,  and  you  will  find  that  they  will  defend  your 
heart  against  many  a  temptation.  A  flask  that  is  full 
of  rich  wine  may  be  plunged  into  the  saltest  ocean, 
and  not  a  drop  will  find  its  way  in.  Fill  your  heart 
with  righteousness ;  your  lives — let  them  glisten  in  the 
light,  and  the  light  will  be  your  armour.  God  is 
light,  wherefore  God  cannot  be  tempted  with  evil. 
•  Walk  in  the  light,  as  He  is  in  the  light '  .  .  .  and  '  the 
blood  of  Jesus  Christ  cleanseth  from  all  sin.' 

But  there  is  another  side  to  that  thought,  for  if  you 
will  look,  at  your  leisure,  to  the  closing  words  of  the 
chapter,  you  will  find  the  Apostle's  own  exposition 
of  what  putting  on  the  armour  of  light  means.  *  Put 
ye  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ ' — that  is  his  explanation 
of  putting  on  '  the  armour  of  light.'  For  *  once  ye  were 
darkness,  but  now  are  ye  light  in  the  Lord, 'and  it  is 
in  the  measure  in  which  we  are  united  to  Him,  by  the 
faith  which  binds  us  to  Him,  and  by  the  love  which 
works  obedience  and  conformity,  that  we  wear  the 
invulnerable  armour  of  light.  Christ  Himself  is,  and 
He  supplies  to  all,  the  separate  graces  which  Christian 
men  can  wear.  We  may  say  that  He  is  *  the  panoply 
of  God,'  as  Paul  calls  it  in  Ephesians,  and  when  we 
wear  Him,  and  only  in  the  measure  in  which  we  do 
wear  Him,  in  that  measure  are  we  clothed  with  it. 
And  so  the  last  thing  that  I  would  point  out  here  is 

X 


322       EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS   [ch.  xiii. 

that  the  obedience  to  these  commands  requires  con- 
tinual effort. 

The  Christians  in  Rome,  to  whom  Paul  was  writing, 
were  no  novices  in  the  Christian  life.  Long  ago  many 
of  them  had  been  brought  to  Him.  But  the  oldest 
Christian  amongst  them  needed  the  exhortation  as 
much  as  the  rawest  recruit  in  the  ranks.  Continual 
renewal  day  by  day  is  what  we  need,  and  it  will  not 
be  secured  without  a  great  deal  of  work.  Seeing  that 
there  is  a  '  putting  off '  to  go  along  with  the  '  putting 
on,'  the  process  is  a  very  long  one.  *  'Tis  a  lifelong  task 
till  the  lump  be  leavened.'  It  is  a  lifelong  task  till  we 
strip  off  all  the  rags  of  this  old  self;  and  'being 
clothed,'  are  not  'found  naked.'  It  takes  a  lifetime 
to  fathom  Jesus;  it  takes  a  lifetime  to  appropriate 
Jesus,  it  takes  a  lifetime  to  be  clothed  with  Jesus. 
And  the  question  comes  to  each  of  us,  have  we  'put 
off  the  old  man  with  his  deeds '  ?  Are  we  daily,  as  sure 
as  we  put  on  our  clothes  in  the  morning,  putting  on 
Christ  the  Lord? 

For  notice  with  what  solemnity  the  Apostle  gives 
the  master  His  full,  official,  formal  title  here,  'put 
ye  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.'  Do  we  put  Him  on  as 
Lord;  bowing  our  whole  wills  to  Him,  and  accepting 
Him,  His  commandments,  promises,  providences,  with 
glad  submission  ?  Do  we  put  on  Jesus,  recognising  in 
His  manhood  as  our  Brother  not  only  the  pattern  of 
our  lives,  but  the  pledge  that  the  pattern,  by  His  help 
and  love,  is  capable  of  reproduction  in  ourselves  ?  Do 
we  put  Him  on  as  *  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,'  who  was 
anointed  with  the  Divine  Spirit,  that  from  the  head  it 
might  flow,  even  to  the  skirts  of  the  garments,  and 
every  one  of  us  might  partake  of  that  unction  and  be 
made  pure  and  clean  thereby?    'Put  ye  on  the  Lord 


V.12]        THE  LIMITS  OF  LIBEKTY  323 

Jesus  Christ,'  and  do  it  day  by  day,  and  then  you  have 
•put  on  the  whole  armour  of  God.' 

And  when  the  day  that  is  dawning  has  risen  to  its 
full,  then,  not  till  then,  may  we  put  off  the  armour 
and  put  on  the  white  robe,  lay  aside  the  helmet,  and 
have  our  brows  wreathed  with  the  laurel,  sheathe  the 
sword,  and  grasp  the  palm,  being  'more  than  con- 
querors through  Him  who  loved  us,'  and  fights  in  us, 
as  well  as  for  us. 


THE  LIMITS  OF  LIBERTY 

'  So  then  every  one  of  us  shall  give  account  of  himself  to  God.    13.  Let  ns  not 

therefore  judge  one  another  any  more :  but  judge  this  rather,  that  no  man  put  a 
etumblingblock,  or  an  occasion  to  fall,  in  his  brother's  way.  14.  I  know,  and  am 
persuaded  by  the  Lord  Jesus,  that  there  is  nothing  unclean  of  itself :  but  to  him 
that  esteemeth  anything  to  be  unclean,  to  him  it  is  unclean.  15.  But  if  thy  brother 
be  grieved  with  thy  meat,  now  walkest  thou  not  charitably.  Destroy  not  him  with 
thy  meat,  for  whom  Christ  died.  16.  Let  not  then  your  good  be  evil  spoken  of : 
17.  For  the  kingdom  of  God  is  not  meat  and  drink  ;  but  righteousness,  and  peace, 
and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost.  18.  For  he  that  in  these  things  serveth  Christ  is 
acceptable  to  God,  and  approved  of  men.  19.  Let  us  therefore  follow  after  the 
things  which  make  for  peace,  and  things  wherewith  one  may  edify  another. 
20.  For  meat  destroy  not  the  work  of  God.  All  things  indeed  are  pure ;  but  it  is 
evil  for  that  man  who  eateth  with  oflFence.  21.  It  is  good  neither  to  eat  flesh,  nor 
to  drink  wine,  nor  any  thing  whereby  thy  brother  stumbleth,  or  is  offended,  or  is 
made  weak.  22.  Hast  thou  faith  ?  have  it  to  thyself  before  God.  Happy  is  he  that 
condemneth  not  himself  in  that  thing  which  he  alloweth.  23.  And  he  that 
doubteth  is  damned  if  he  eat,  because  he  eateth  not  of  faith :  for  whatsoever  is 
not  of  faith  is  sin.'— Romans  xiv.  12-23. 

The  special  case  in  view,  in  the  section  of  which  this 
passage  is  part,  is  the  difference  of  opinion  as  to  the 
lawfulness  of  eating  certain  meats.  It  is  of  little 
consequence,  so  far  as  the  principles  involved  are 
concerned,  whether  these  were  the  food  which  the 
Mosaic  ordinances  made  unclean,  or,  as  in  Corinth, 
meats  offered  to  idols.  The  latter  is  the  more  probable, 
and  would  be  the  more  important  in  Rome.  The  two 
opinions  on  the  point  represented  two  tendencies  of 
mind,  which  always  exist;  one  more  scrupulous,  and 


324        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.xiv. 

one  more  liberal.  Paul  has  been  giving  the  former 
class  the  lesson  they  needed  in  the  former  part  of  this 
chapter ;  and  he  now  turns  to  the  •  stronger '  brethren, 
and  lays  down  the  law  for  their  conduct.  We  may, 
perhaps,  best  simply  follow  him,  verse  by  verse. 

We  note  then,  first,  the  great  thought  with  which  he 
starts,  that  of  the  final  judgment,  in  which  each  man 
shall  give  account  of  himself.  What  has  that  to  do 
with  the  question  in  hand  ?  This,  that  it  ought  to  keep 
us  from  premature  and  censorious  judging.  We  have 
something  more  pressing  to  do  than  to  criticise  each 
other.  Ourselves  are  enough  to  keep  our  hands  full, 
without  taking  a  lift  of  our  fellows'  conduct.  And  this, 
further,  that,  in  view  of  the  final  judgment,  we  should 
hold  a  preliminary  investigation  on  our  own  principles 
of  action,  and  '  decide '  to  adopt  as  the  overruling  law 
for  ourselves,  that  we  shall  do  nothing  which  will  make 
duty  harder  for  our  brethren.  Paul  habitually  settled 
small  matters  on  large  principles,  and  brought  the 
solemnities  of  the  final  account  to  bear  on  the  market- 
place and  the  meal. 

In  verse  13  he  lays  down  the  supreme  principle  for 
settling  the  case  in  hand.  No  Christian  is  blameless  if 
he  voluntarily  acts  so  as  to  lay  a  stumbling-block  or 
an  occasion  to  fall  in  another's  path.  Are  these  two 
things  the  same?  Possibly,  but  a  man  may  stumble, 
and  not  fall,  and  that  which  makes  him  stumble  may 
possibly  indicate  a  temptation  to  a  less  grave  evil  than 
that  which  makes  him  fall  does.  It  may  be  noticed 
that  in  the  sequel  we  hear  of  a  brother's  being  'grieved' 
first,  and  then  of  his  being  '  overthrown.'  In  any  case, 
there  is  no  mistake  about  the  principle  laid  down  and 
repeated  in  verse  21.  It  is  a  hard  saying  for  some  of 
us.      Is  my  liberty    to  be  restricted    by  the  narrow 


vs.  12-23]     THE  LIMITS  OF  LIBERTY        325 

scruples  of  •  strait-laced '  Christians  ?  Yes.  Does  not 
that  make  them  masters,  and  attach  too  much  import- 
ance to  their  narrowness?  No.  It  recognises  Christ 
as  Master,  and  all  His  servants  as  brethren.  If  the 
scrupulous  ones  go  so  far  as  to  say  to  the  more  liberal, 
'  You  cannot  be  Christians  if  you  do  not  do  as  we  do,' 
then  the  limits  of  concession  have  been  reached,  and 
we  are  to  do  as  Paul  did,  when  he  flatly  refused  to  yield 
one  hair's-breadth  to  the  Judaisers.  If  a  man  says. 
You  must  adopt  this,  that,  or  the  other  limitation  in 
conduct,  or  else  you  shall  be  unchurched,  the  only 
answer  is,  I  will  not.  We  are  to  be  flexible  as  long  as 
possible,  and  let  weak  brethren's  scruples  restrain  our 
action.  But  if  they  insist  on  things  indifferent  as 
essential,  a  yet  higher  duty  than  that  of  regard  to  their 
weak  consciences  comes  in,  and  faithfulness  to  Christ 
limits  concession  to  His  servants. 

But,  short  of  that  extreme  case,  Paul  lays  down  the 
law  of  curbing  liberty  in  deference  to  'narrowness.' 
In  verse  14  he  states  with  equal  breadth  the  extreme 
principle  of  the  liberal  party,  that  nothing  is  unclean 
of  itself.  He  has  learned  that  'in  the  Lord  Jesus.' 
Before  he  was  'in  Him,'  he  had  been  entangled  in 
cobwebs  of  legal  cleanness  and  uncleanness ;  but  now 
he  is  free.  But  he  adds  an  exception,  which  must  be 
kept  in  mind  by  the  liberal-minded  section — namely, 
that  a  clean  thing  is  unclean  to  a  man  who  thinks  it 
is.  Of  course,  these  principles  do  not  affect  the  eternal 
distinctions  of  right  and  wrong.  Paul  is  not  playing 
fast  and  loose  with  the  solemn,  divine  law  which  makes 
sin  and  righteousness  independent  of  men's  notions. 
He  is  speaking  of  things  indifferent  —  ceremonial 
observances  and  the  like ;  and  the  modern  analogies  of 
these  are  conventional  pieces  of  conduct,  in  regard  to 


326        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.xiv. 

amusements  and  the  like,  which,  in  themselves,  a 
Christian  man  can  do  or  abstain  from  without  sin. 

Verse  15  is  difficult  to  understand,  if  the  '  for '  at  the 
beginning  is  taken  strictly.  Some  commentators  would 
read  instead  of  it  a  simple '  but,'  which  smooths  the  flow 
of  thought.  But  possibly  the  verse  assigns  a  reason 
for  the  law  in  verse  13,  rather  than  for  the  statements 
in  verse  14.  And  surely  there  is  no  stronger  reason 
for  tender  consideration  for  even  the  narrowest  scruples 
of  Christians  than  the  obligation  to  walk  in  love.  Our 
common  brotherhood  binds  us  to  do  nothing  that  would 
even  grieve  one  of  the  family.  For  instance,  Christian 
men  have  different  views  of  the  obligations  of  Sunday 
observance.  It  is  conceivable  that  a  very  '  broad ' 
Christian  might  see  no  harm  in  playing  lawn-tennis  in 
his  garden  on  a  Sunday ;  but  if  his  doing  so  scandalised, 
or,  as  Paul  says,  'grieved'  Christian  people  of  less 
advanced  views,  he  would  be  sinning  against  the  law 
of  love  if  he  did  it. 

There  are  many  other  applications  of  the  principle 
readily  suggested.  The  principle  is  the  thing  to  keep 
clearly  in  view.  It  has  a  wide  field  for  its  exercise  in 
our  times,  and  when  the  Christian  brotherhood  includes 
such  diversities  of  culture  and  social  condition.  And 
that  is  a  solemn  deepening  of  it,  '  Destroy  not  with 
thy  meat  him  for  whom  Christ  died.'  Note  the  almost 
bitter  emphasis  on  '  thy,'  which  brings  out  not  only  the 
smallness  of  the  gratification  for  which  the  mischief  is 
done,  but  the  selfishness  of  the  man  who  will  not  yield 
up  so  small  a  thing  to  shield  from  evil  which  may  prove 
fatal,  a  brother  for  whom  Christ  did  not  shrink  from 
yielding  up  life.  If  He  is  our  pattern,  any  sacrifice  of 
tastes  and  liberties  for  our  brother's  sake  is  plain  duty, 
and  cannot  be  neglected  without  selfish  sin.    One  great 


vs.12-23]  THE  LIMITS  OF  LIBERTY  327 

reason,  then,  for  the  conduct  enjoined,  is  set  forth  in 
verse  15.    It  is  the  clear  dictate  of  Christian  love. 

Another  reason  is  urged  in  verses  16  to  18.  It  displays 
the  true  character  of  Christianity,  and  so  reflects  honour 
on  the  doer.  'Your  good'  is  an  expression  for  the 
whole  sum  of  the  blessings  obtained  by  becoming 
Christians,  and  is  closely  connected  with  what  is  here 
meant  by  the  '  kingdom  of  God.'  That  latter  phrase 
seems  here  to  be  substantially  equivalent  to  the  inward 
condition  in  which  they  are  who  have  submitted  to  the 
dominion  of  the  will  of  God.  It  is  *  the  kingdom  within 
us '  which  is  '  righteousness,  peace,  and  joy  in  the  Holy 
Ghost.'  What  have  you  won  by  your  Christianity  ? 
the  Apostle  in  effect  says,  Do  you  think  that  its 
purpose  is  mainly  to  give  you  greater  licence  in  regard 
to  these  matters  in  question?  If  the  most  obvious 
thing  in  your  conduct  is  your  'eating  and  drinking,' 
your  whole  Christian  standing  will  be  misconceived, 
and  men  will  fancy  that  your  religion  permits  laxity 
of  life.  But  if,  on  the  other  hand,  you  show  that  you 
are  Christ's  servants  by  righteousness,  peace,  and  joy, 
you  will  be  pleasing  to  God,  and  men  will  recognise 
that  your  religion  is  from  Him,  and  that  you  are  con- 
sistent professors  of  it. 

Modern  liberal-minded  brethren  can  easily  translate 
all  this  for  to-day's  use.  Take  care  that  you  do  not 
give  the  impression  that  your  Christianity  has  its  main 
operation  in  permitting  you  to  do  what  your  weaker 
brethren  have  scruples  about.  If  you  do  not  yield  to 
them,  but  flaunt  your  liberty  in  their  and  the  world's 
faces,  your  advanced  enlightenment  will  be  taken  by 
rough-and-ready  observers  as  mainly  cherished  because 
it  procures  you  these  immunities.  Show  by  your  life 
that  you  have  the  true  spiritual  gifts.     Think  more 


328        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.xiv. 

about  them  than  about  your  *  breadth,'  and  superiority 
to  '  narrow  prejudices.'  Realise  the  purpose  of  the 
Gospel  as  concerns  your  own  moral  perfecting,  and  the 
questions  in  hand  will  fall  into  their  right  place. 

In  verses  19  and  20  two  more  reasons  are  given  for 
restricting  liberty  in  deference  to  others'  scruples. 
Such  conduct  contributes  to  peace.  If  truth  is  im- 
perilled, or  Christ's  name  in  danger  of  being  tarnished, 
counsels  of  peace  are  counsels  of  treachery ;  but  there 
are  not  many  things  worth  buying  at  the  price  of 
Christian  concord.  Such  conduct  tends  to  build  up  our 
own  and  others'  Christian  character.  Concessions  to 
the  '  weak '  may  help  them  to  become  strong,  but  flying 
in  the  face  of  their  scruples  is  sure  to  hurt  them,  in  one 
way  or  another. 

In  verse  15,  the  case  was  supposed  of  a  brother's  being 
grieved  by  what  he  felt  to  be  laxity.  That  case  corre- 
sponded to  the  stumbling-block  of  verse  13.  A  worse 
result  seems  contemplated  in  verse  20, — that  of  the 
weak  brother,  still  believing  that  laxity  was  wrong, 
and  yet  being  tempted  by  the  example  of  the  stronger 
to  indulge  in  it.  In  that  event,  the  responsibility  of 
overthrowing  what  God  had  built  lies  at  the  door  of 
the  tempter.  The  metaphor  of  '  overthrowing '  is 
suggested  by  the  previous  one  of  '  edifying.'  Christian 
duty  is  mutual  building  up  of  character ;  inconsiderate 
exercise  of  '  liberty '  may  lead  to  pulling  down,  by 
inducing  to  imitation  which  conscience  condemns. 

From  this  point  onwards,  the  Apostle  first  reiterates 
in  inverse  order  his  two  broad  principles,  that  clean 
things  are  unclean  to  the  man  who  thinks  them  so, 
and  that  Christian  obligation  requires  abstinence  from 
permitted  things  if  our  indulgence  tends  to  a  brother's 
hurt.     The  application  of  the  latter  principle  to  the 


73.12-23]   THE  LIMITS  OF  LIBERTY         329 

duty  of  total  abstinence  from  intoxicants  for  the  sake 
of  others  is  perfectly  legitimate,  but  it  is  an  application, 
not  the  direct  purpose  of  the  Apostle's  injunctions. 

In  verses  22  and  23,  the  section  is  closed  by  two 
exhortations,  in  which  both  parties,  the  strong  and  the 
weak,  are  addressed.  The  former  is  spoken  to  in 
verse  22,  the  latter  in  verse  23.  The  strong  brother  is 
bid  to  be  content  with  having  his  wider  views,  or 
'  faith ' — that  is,  certainty  that  his  liberty  is  in  accord- 
ance with  Christ's  will.  It  is  enough  that  he  should 
enjoy  that  conviction,  only  let  him  make  sure  that  he 
can  hold  it  as  in  God's  sight,  and  do  not  let  him  flourish 
it  in  the  faces  of  brethren  whom  it  would  grieve,  or 
might  lead  to  imitating  his  practice,  without  having 
risen  to  his  conviction.  And  let  him  be  quite  sure  that 
his  conscience  is  entirely  convinced,  and  not  bribed  by 
inclination ;  for  many  a  man  condemns  himself  by 
letting  wishes  dictate  to  conscience. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  is  a  danger  that  those  who 
have  scruples  should,  by  the  example  of  those  who 
have  not,  be  tempted  to  do  what  they  are  not  quite 
sure  is  right.  If  you  have  any  doubts,  says  Paul,  the 
safe  course  is  to  abstain  from  the  conduct  in  question. 
Perhaps  a  brother  can  go  to  the  theatre  without  harm, 
if  he  believes  it  right  to  do  so ;  but  if  you  have  any 
hesitation  as  to  the  propriety  of  going,  you  will  be 
condemned  as  sinning  if  you  do.  You  must  not  measure 
your  corn  by  another  man's  bushel.  Your  convictions, 
not  his,  are  to  be  your  guides.  '  Faith  '  is  used  here  in 
a  somewhat  unusual  sense.  It  means  certitude  of 
judgment.  The  last  words  of  verse  23  have  no  such 
meaning  as  is  sometimes  extracted  from  them ;  namely, 
that  actions,  however  pure  and  good,  done  by  unbe- 
lievers, are  of  the  nature  of  sin.    They  simply  mean 


330        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS    [ch.xv. 

that  whatever  a  Christian  man  does  without  clear 
warrant  of  his  judgment  and  conscience  is  sin  to  him, 
whatever  it  is  to  others. 


TWO  FOUNTAINS,  ONE  STREAM 

'  That  we,  through  patience  and  comfort  of  the  Scriptures,  might  have  hope. 
...  13.  The  God  of  hope  fill  you  with  all  joy  and  peace  in  helieying,  that  ye 
may  abound  in  hope.'— Romans  xv.  i,  13. 

There  is  a  river  in  Switzerland  fed  by  two  uniting 
streams,  bearing  the  same  name,  one  of  them  called 
the  'white,'  one  of  them  the  *grey,'  or  dark.  One 
comes  down  from  the  glaciers,  and  bears  half -melted 
snow  in  its  white  ripple;  the  other  flows  through 
a  lovely  valley,  and  is  discoloured  by  its  earth. 
They  unite  in  one  common  current.  So  in  these  two 
verses  we  have  two  streams,  a  white  and  a  black, 
and  they  both  blend  together  and  flow  out  into 
a  common  hope.  In  the  former  of  them  we  have 
the  dark  stream  — '  through  patience  and  comfort,' 
which  implies  affliction  and  effort.  The  issue  and 
outcome  of  all  difficulty,  trial,  sorrow,  ought  to  be 
hope.  And  in  the  other  verse  we  have  the  other 
valley,  down  which  the  light  stream  comes :  *  The  God 
of  hope  fill  you  with  all  joy  and  peace  in  believing, 
that  ye  may  abound  in  hope.' 

So  both  halves  of  the  possible  human  experience 
are  meant  to  end  in  the  same  blessed  result;  and 
whether  you  go  round  on  the  one  side  of  the  sphere 
of  human  life,  or  whether  you  take  the  other  hemi- 
sphere, you  come  to  the  same  point,  if  you  have 
travelled  with  God's  hand  in  yours,  and  with  Him  for 
your  Guide. 


vs.4,13]  TWO  FOUNTAINS,  ONE  STREAM  331 

Let  us  look,  then,  at  these  two  contrasted  origins  of 
the  same  blessed  gift,  the  Christian  hope. 

I.  We  have,  first  of  all,  the  hope  that  is  the  child  of 
the  night,  and  born  in  the  dark. 

'  Whatsoever  things,'  says  the  Apostle,  •  were  written 
aforetime,  were  written  for  our  learning,  that  we, 
through  patience,' — or  rather  the  brave  'perseverance — 
•  and  consolation ' — or  rather  perhaps  encouragement — 
'  of  the  Scriptures  might  have  hope.'  The  written  word 
is  conceived  as  the  source  of  patient  endurance  which 
acts  as  well  as  suffers.  This  grace  Scripture  works  in 
us  through  the  encouragement  which  it  ministers  in 
manifold  ways,  and  the  result  of  both  is  hope. 

So,  you  see,  our  sorrows  and  difficulties  are  not  con- 
nected with,  nor  do  they  issue  in,  bright  hopefulness, 
except  by  reason  of  this  connecting  link.  There  is 
nothing  in  a  man's  troubles  to  make  him  hopeful. 
Sometimes,  rather,  they  drive  him  into  despair;  but 
at  all  events,  they  seldom  drive  him  to  hopefulness, 
except  where  this  link  comes  in.  We  cannot  pass 
from  the  black  frowning  cliffs  on  one  side  of  the  gorge 
to  the  sunny  tablelands  on  the  other  without  a  bridge 
— and  the  bridge  for  a  poor  soul  from  the  blackness 
of  sorrow,  and  the  sharp  grim  rocks  of  despair,  to 
the  smiling  pastures  of  hope,  with  all  their  half-open 
blossoms,  is  builded  in  that  Book,  which  tells  us  the 
meaning  and  purpose  of  them  all ;  and  is  full  of  the 
histories  of  those  who  have  fought  and  overcome, 
have  hoped  and  not  been  ashamed. 

Scripture  is  given  for  this  among  other  reasons, 
that  it  may  encourage  us,  and  so  may  produce  in  us 
this  great  grace  of  active  patience,  if  we  may  call  it  so. 

The  first  thing  to  notice  is,  how  Scripture  gives 
encouragement — for  such  rather  than  consolation  is 


332         EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.  xv. 

the  meaning  of  the  word.  It  is  much  to  dry  tears, 
but  it  is  more  to  stir  the  heart  as  with  a  trumpet  call. 
Consolation  is  precious,  but  we  need  more  for  well- 
being  than  only  to  be  comforted.  And,  surely,  the 
whole  tone  of  Scripture  in  its  dealing  with  the  great 
mystery  of  pain  and  sorrow,  has  a  loftier  scope  than 
even  to  minister  assuagement  to  grief,  and  to  stay  our 
weeping.  It  seeks  to  make  us  strong  and  brave  to 
face  and  to  master  our  sorrows,  and  to  infuse  into  us 
a  high-hearted  courage,  which  shall  not  merely  be 
able  to  accept  the  biting  blasts,  but  shall  feel  that 
they  bring  a  glow  to  the  cheek  and  oxygen  to  the 
blood,  while  wrestling  with  them  builds  up  our  strength, 
and  trains  us  for  higher  service.  It  would  be  a  poor 
aim  to  comfort  only;  but  to  encourage — to  make 
strong  in  heart,  resolved  in  will,  and  incapable  of 
being  overborne  or  crushed  in  spirit  by  any  sorrows — 
that  is  a  purpose  worthy  of  the  Book,  and  of  the  God 
who  speaks  through  it. 

This  purpose,  we  may  say,  is  effected  by  Scripture  in 
two  ways.  It  encourages  us  by  its  records,  and  by  its 
revelation  of  principles. 

Who  can  tell  how  many  struggling  souls  have  taken 
heart  again,  as  they  pondered  over  the  sweet  stories 
of  sorrow  subdued  which  stud  its  pages,  like  stars  in 
its  firmament?  The  tears  shed  long  ago  which  God 
has  put '  in  His  bottle,'  and  recorded  in  '  His  book,'  have 
truly  been  turned  into  pearls.  That  long  gallery  of 
portraits  of  sufferers,  who  have  all  trodden  the  same 
rough  road,  and  been  sustained  by  the  same  hand,  and 
reached  the  same  home,  speaks  cheer  to  all  who  follow 
them.  Hearts  wrung  by  cruel  partings  from  those 
dearer  to  them  than  their  own  souls,  turn  to  the  pages 
which  tell  how  Abraham,  with  calm  sorrow,  laid  his 


VSAA3]  TWO  FOUNTAINS,  ONE  STREAM  333 

Sarah  in  the  cave  at  Macpelah ;  or  how,  when  Jacob's 
eyes  were  dim  that  he  could  not  see,  his  memory  still 
turned  to  the  hour  of  agony  when  Rachael  died  by 
him,  and  he  sees  clear  in  its  light  her  lonely  grave, 
where  so  much  of  himself  was  laid  ;  or  to  the  still  more 
sacred  page  which  records  the  struggle  of  grief  and 
faith  in  the  hearts  of  the  sisters  of  Bethany.  All  who 
are  anyways  afflicted  in  mind,  body,  or  estate  find  in 
the  Psalms  men  speaking  their  deepest  experiences 
before  them ;  and  the  grand  majesty  of  sorrow  that 
marks  *  the  patience  of  Job,'  and  the  flood  of  sunshine 
that  bathes  him,  revealing  the  '  end  of  the  Lord,'  have 
strengthened  countless  sufferers  to  bear  and  to  hold 
fast,  and  to  hope.  We  are  all  enough  of  children  to 
be  more  affected  by  living  examples  than  by  disserta- 
tions, however  true,  and  so  Scripture  is  mainly  history, 
revealing  God  by  the  record  of  His  acts,  and  disclosing 
the  secret  of  human  life  by  telling  us  the  experiences 
of  living  men. 

But  Scripture  has  another  method  of  ministering 
encouragement  to  our  often  fainting  and  faithless 
hearts.  It  cuts  down  through  all  the  complica- 
tions of  human  affairs,  and  lays  bare  the  inner- 
most motive  power.  It  not  only  shows  us  in  its 
narratives  the  working  of  sorrow,  and  the  power  of 
faith,  but  it  distinctly  lays  down  the  source  and  the 
purpose,  the  whence  and  the  whither  of  all  suffering. 
No  man  need  quail  or  faint  before  the  most  torturing 
pains  or  most  disastrous  strokes  of  evil,  who  holds 
firmly  the  plain  teaching  of  Scripture  on  these  two 
points.  They  all  come  from  my  Father,  and  they  all 
come  for  my  good.  It  is  a  short  and  simple  creed, 
easily  apprehended.  It  pretends  to  no  recondite 
wisdom.     It  is  a  homely  philosophy  which  common 


334        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS    [ch.  xv. 

intellects  can  grasp,  which  children  can  understand, 
and  hearts  half  paralysed  by  sorrow  can  take  in.  So 
much  the  better.  Grief  and  pain  are  so  common  that 
their  cure  had  need  to  be  easily  obtained.  Ignorant 
and  stupid  people  have  to  writhe  in  agony  as  well  as 
wise  and  clever  ones,  and  until  grief  is  the  portion 
only  of  the  cultivated  classes,  its  healing  must  come 
from  something  more  universal  than  philosophy ;  or 
else  the  nettle  would  be  more  plentiful  than  the  dock ; 
and  many  a  poor  heart  would  be  stung  to  death. 
Blessed  be  God!  the  Christian  view  of  sorrow,  while 
it  leaves  much  unexplained,  focuses  a  steady  light  on 
these  two  points  ;  its  origin  and  its  end.  '  He  for  our 
profit,  that  we  may  be  partakers  of  His  holiness,'  is 
enough  to  calm  all  agitation,  and  to  make  the  faintest 
heart  take  fresh  courage.  With  that  double  certitude 
clear  before  us,  we  can  face  anything.  The  slings  and 
arrows  which  strike  are  no  more  flung  blindly  by  an 
'outrageous  fortune,'  but  each  bears  an  inscription, 
like  the  fabled  bolts,  which  tells  what  hand  drew  the 
bow,  and  they  come  with  His  love. 

Then,  further,  the  courage  thus  born  of  the  Scrip- 
tures produces  another  grand  thing — patience,  or 
rather  perseverance.  By  that  word  is  meant  more 
than  simply  the  passive  endurance  which  is  the  main 
element  in  patience,  properly  so  called.  Such  passive 
endurance  is  a  large  part  of  our  duty  in  regard  to 
difficulties  and  sorrows,  but  is  never  the  whole  of  it. 
It  is  something  to  endure  and  even  while  the  heart  is 
breaking,  to  submit  unmurmuring,  but,  transcendent 
as  that  is,  it  is  but  half  of  the  lesson  which  we  have  to 
learn  and  tc  put  in  practice.  For  if  all  our  sorrow^ 
have  a  disciplinary  and  educational  purpose,  we  shall 
not  have  received  them  aright,  unless  we  have  tried 


vs. 4,13]  TWO  FOUNTAINS,  ONE  STREAM  335 

to  make  that  purpose  effectual,  by  appropriating 
whatsoever  moral  and  spiritual  teaching  they  each 
have  for  us.  Nor  does  our  duty  stop  there.  For  v^^hile 
one  high  purpose  of  sorrow  is  to  deaden  our  hearts  to 
earthly  objects,  and  to  lift  us  above  earthly  affections, 
no  sorrow  can  ever  relax  the  bonds  which  oblige  us 
to  duty.  The  solemn  pressure  of  *  I  ought,'  is  as  heavy 
on  the  sorrowful  as  on  the  happy  heart.  We  have 
still  to  toil,  to  press  forward,  in  the  sweat  of  our  brow, 
to  gain  our  bread,  whether  it  be  food  for  our  bodies, 
or  sustenance  for  our  hearts  and  minds.  Our  responsi- 
bilities to  others  do  not  cease  because  our  lives  are 
darkened.  Therefore,  heavy  or  light  of  heart,  we 
have  still  to  stick  to  our  work,  and  though  we  may 
never  more  be  able  to  do  it  with  the  old  buoyancy, 
still  to  do  it  with  our  might. 

It  is  that  dogged  persistence  in  plain  duty,  that 
tenacious  continuance  in  our  course,  which  is  here 
set  forth  as  the  result  of  the  encouragement  which 
Scripture  gives.  Many  of  us  have  all  our  strength 
exhausted  in  mere  endurance,  and  have  let  obvious 
duties  slip  from  our  hands,  as  if  we  had  done  all  that 
we  could  do  when  we  had  forced  ourselves  to  submit. 
Submission  would  come  easier  if  you  took  up  some 
of  those  neglected  duties,  and  you  would  be  stronger 
for  patience,  if  you  used  more  of  your  strength  for 
service.  You  do  well  if  you  do  not  sink  under  your 
burden,  but  you  would  do  better  if,  with  it  on  your 
shoulders,  you  would  plod  steadily  along  the  road ;  and 
if  you  did,  you  would  feel  the  weight  less.  It  seems 
heaviest  when  you  stand  still  doing  nothing.  Do  not 
cease  to  toil  because  you  suffer.  You  will  feel  your 
pain  more  if  you  do.  Take  the  encouragement  which 
Scripture  gives,  that  it  may  animate  you  to  bate  no 


336         EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.  xv. 

jot  of  heart  or  hope,  but  still  bear  up  and  steer  right 
onward. 

And  let  the  Scripture  directly  minister  to  you 
perseverance  as  well  as  indirectly  supply  it  through 
the  encouragement  which  it  gives.  It  abounds  with 
exhortations,  patterns,  and  motives  of  such  patient 
continuance  in  well-doing.  It  teaches  us  a  solemn 
scorn  of  ills.  It,  angel-like,  bears  us  up  on  soft,  strong 
hands,  lest  we  bruise  ourselves  on,  or  stumble  over, 
the  rough  places  on  our  roads.  It  summons  us  to 
diligence  by  the  visions  of  the  prize,  and  glimpses  of 
the  dread  fate  of  the  slothful,  by  all  that  is  blessed  in 
hope,  and  terrible  in  foreboding,  by  appeals  to  an  en- 
lightened self-regard,  and  by  authoritative  commands 
to  conscience,  by  the  pattern  of  the  Master,  and  by 
the  tender  motives  of  love  to  Him  to  which  He,  Him- 
self, has  given  voice.  All  these  call  on  us  to  be 
followers  of  them  who,  through  faith  and  persever- 
ance, inherit  the  promises. 

But  we  have  yet  another  step  to  take.  These  two, 
the  encouragement  and  perseverance  produced  by  the 
right  use  of  Scripture,  will  lead  to  hope. 

It  depends  on  how  sorrow  and  trial  are  borne, 
whether  they  produce  a  dreary  hopelessness  which 
sometimes  darkens  into  despair,  or  a  brighter,  firmer 
hope  than  more  joyous  days  knew.  We  cannot  say 
that  sorrow  produces  hope.  It  does  not,  unless  we 
have  this  connecting  link — the  experience  in  sorrow 
of  a  God-given  courage  which  falters  not  in  the  on- 
ward course,  nor  shrinks  from  any  duty.  But  if,  in 
the  very  press  and  agony,  I  am  able,  by  God's  grace, 
to  endure  nor  cease  to  toil,  I  have,  in  myself,  a  living 
proof  of  His  power,  which  entitles  me  to  look  forward 
with  the  sure  confidence  that,  through  all  the  uproar 


V8.4,13]  TWO  FOUNTAINS,  ONE  STREAM  337 

of  the  storm,  He  will  bring  me  to  my  harbour  of  rest 
where  there  is  peace.  The  lion  once  slain  houses  a 
Bwarm  of  bees  who  lay  up  honey  in  its  carcase.  The 
trial  borne  with  brave  persistence  yields  a  store  of 
sweet  hopes.  If  we  can  look  back  and  say,  'Thou 
hast  been  with  me  in  six  troubles,'  it  is  good  logic  to 
look  forward  and  say,  '  and  in  seven  Thou  wilt  not 
forsake  me.'  When  the  first  wave  breaks  over  the 
ship,  as  she  clears  the  heads  and  heels  over  before 
the  full  power  of  the  open  sea,  inexperienced  lands- 
men think  they  are  all  going  to  the  bottom,  but  they 
soon  learn  that  there  is  a  long  way  between  rolling 
and  foundering,  and  get  to  watch  the  highest  waves 
towering  above  the  bows  in  full  confidence  that  these 
also  will  slip  quietly  beneath  the  keel  as  the  others 
have  done,  and  be  left  harmless  astern. 

The  Apostle,  in  this  very  same  letter,  has  another 
word  parallel  to  this,  in  which  he  describes  the  issues 
of  rightly-borne  suffering  when  he  says,  'Tribulation 
worketh  perseverance' — the  same  word  that  is  used 
here — 'and  perseverance  worketh'  the  proof  in  our 
experience  of  a  sustaining  God;  and  the  proof  in 
our  experience  of  a  sustaining  God  works  hope.  We 
know  that  of  ourselves  we  could  not  have  met  tribula- 
tion, and  therefore  the  fact  that  we  have  been  able  to 
meet  and  overcome  it  is  demonstration  of  a  mightier 
power  than  our  own,  working  in  us,  which  we  know 
to  be  from  God,  and  therefore  inexhaustible  and  ever 
ready  to  help.  That  is  foundation  firm  enough  to  build 
solid  fabrics  of  hope  upon,  whose  bases  go  down  to 
the  centre  of  all  things,  the  purpose  of  God,  and 
whose  summits,  like  the  upward  shooting  spire  of  some 
cathedral,  aspire  to,  and  seem  almost  to  touch,  the 
heavens. 

T 


338         EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS   [ch.xv. 

So  hope  is  born  of  sorrow,  when  these  other  things 
come  between.  The  darkness  gives  birth  to  the 
light,  and  every  grief  blazes  up  a  witness  to  a  future 
glory.  Each  drop  that  hangs  on  the  wet  leaves 
twinkles  into  rainbow  light  that  proclaims  the  sun. 
The  garish  splendours  of  the  prosperous  day  hide  the 
stars,  and  through  the  night  of  our  sorrow  there 
shine,  thickly  sown  and  steadfast,  the  constellations 
of  eternal  hopes.  The  darker  the  midnight,  the  surer, 
and  perhaps  the  nearer,  the  coming  of  the  day. 
Sorrow  has  not  had  its  perfect  work  unless  it  has 
led  us  by  the  way  of  courage  and  perseverance  to  a 
stable  hope.  Hope  has  not  pierced  to  the  rock,  and 
builds  only  *  things  that  can  be  shaken,'  unless  it  rests 
on  sorrows  borne  by  God's  help. 

II.  So  much  then  for  the  genealogy  of  one  form  of 
the  Christian  hope.  But  we  have  also  a  hope  that  is 
born  of  the  day,  the  child  of  sunshine  and  gladness ; 
and  that  is  set  before  us  in  the  second  of  the  two 
verses  which  we  are  considering,  'The  God  of  hope 
fill  you  with  all  joy  and  peace  in  believing,  that  ye 
may  abound  in  hope.' 

So  then, '  the  darkness  and  the  light  are  both  alike  * 
to  our  hope,  in  so  far  as  each  may  become  the  occa- 
sion for  its  exercise.  It  is  not  only  to  be  the  sweet 
juice  expressed  from  our  hearts  by  the  winepress  of 
calamities,  but  that  which  flows  of  itself  from  hearts 
ripened  and  mellowed  under  the  sunshine  of  God- 
given  blessedness. 

We  have  seen  that  the  bridge  by  which  sorrow  led 
to  hope,  is  perseverance  and  courage ;  in  this  second 
analysis  of  the  origin  of  hope,  joy  and  peace  are  the 
bridge  by  which  Faith  passes  over  into  it.  Observe 
the  difference :  there  is  no  direct  connection  between 


vs.4,13]  TWO  FOUNTAINS,  ONE  STREAM  339 

affliction  and  hope,  but  there  is  between  joy  and  hope. 
We  have  no  right  to  say,  'Because  I  suffer,  I  shall 
possess  good  in  the  future ' ;  but  we  have  a  right  to 
say,  *  Because  I  rejoice ' — of  course  with  a  joy  in  God — 
*I  shall  never  cease  to  rejoice  in  Him.'  Such  joy  is  the 
prophet  of  its  own  immortality  and  completion.  And, 
on  the  other  hand,  the  joy  and  peace  which  are 
naturally  the  direct  progenitors  of  Christian  hope,  are 
the  children  of  faith.  So  that  we  have  here  two 
generations,  as  it  were,  of  hope's  ancestors; — Faith 
produces  joy  and  peace,  and  these  again  produce  hope. 

Faith  leads  to  joy  and  peace.  Paul  has  found,  and 
if  we  only  put  it  to  the  proof,  we  shall  also  find,  that 
the  simple  exercise  of  simple  faith  fills  the  soul  with 
^all  joy  and  peace.'  Gladness  in  all  its  variety  and 
in  full  measure,  calm  repose  in  every  kind  and 
abundant  in  its  still  depth,  will  pour  into  my  heart  as 
water  does  into  a  vessel,  on  condition  of  my  taking 
away  the  barrier  and  opening  my  heart  through  faith. 
Trust  and  thou  shalt  be  glad.  Trust,  and  thou  shalt 
be  calm.  In  the  measure  of  thy  trust  shall  be  the 
measure  of  thy  joy  and  peace. 

Notice,  further,  how  indissolubly  connected  the  pre- 
sent exercise  of  faith  is  with  the  present  experience 
of  joy  and  peace.  The  exuberant  language  of  this 
text  seems  a  world  too  wide  for  anything  that  many 
professing  Christians  ever  know  even  in  the  moments 
of  highest  elevation,  and  certainly  far  beyond  the 
ordinary  tenor  of  their  lives.  But  it  is  no  wonder  that 
these  should  have  so  little  joy,  when  they  have  so 
little  faith.  It  is  only  while  we  are  looking  to  Jesus 
that  we  can  expect  to  have  joy  and  peace.  There  is 
no  flashing  light  on  the  surface  of  the  mirror,  but 
when  it  is  turned  full  to  the  sun.    Any  interruption 


340         EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.  xv. 

in  the  electric  current  is  registered  accurately  by  an 
interruption  in  the  continuous  line  perforated  on  the 
telegraph  ribbon ;  and  so  every  diversion  of  heart  and 
faith  from  Jesus  Christ  is  recorded  by  the  fading  of 
the  sunshine  out  of  the  heart,  and  the  silencing  of  all 
the  song-birds.  Yesterday's  faith  will  not  bring  joy 
to-day ;  you  cannot  live  upon  past  experience,  nor 
feed  your  souls  with  the  memory  of  former  exercises 
of  Christian  faith.  It  must  be  like  the  manna, 
gathered  fresh  every  day,  else  it  will  rot  and  smell 
foul.  A  present  faith,  and  a  present  faith  only,  pro- 
duces a  present  joy  and  peace.  Is  there,  then,  any 
wonder  that  so  much  of  the  ordinary  experience  of 
ordinary  Christians  should  present  a  sadly  broken 
line — a  bright  point  here  and  there,  separated  by  long 
stretches  of  darkness  ?  The  gaps  in  the  continuity  of 
their  joy  are  the  tell-tale  indicators  of  the  interrup- 
tions in  their  faith.  If  the  latter  were  continuous, 
the  former  would  be  unbroken.  Always  believe,  and 
you  will  always  be  glad  and  calm. 

It  is  easy  to  see  that  this  is  the  natural  result  of 
faith.  The  very  act  of  confident  reliance  on  another 
for  all  my  safety  and  well-being  has  a  charm  to  make 
me  restful,  so  long  as  my  reliance  is  not  put  to  shame. 
There  is  no  more  blessed  emotion  than  the  tranquil 
happiness  which,  in  the  measure  of  its  trust,  fills  every 
trustful  soul.  Even  when  its  objects  are  poor,  fallible, 
weak,  ignorant  dying  men  and  women,  trust  brings 
a  breath  of  more  than  earthly  peace  into  the  heart. 
But  when  it  grasps  the  omnipotent,  all- wise,  immortal 
Christ,  there  are  no  bounds  but  its  own  capacity  to 
the  blessedness  which  it  brings  into  the  soul,  because 
there  is  none  to  the  all-sufficient  grace  of  which  it 
lays  hold. 


V8.4,13]  TWO  FOUNTAINS,  ONE  STREAM  841 

Observe  again  how  accurately  the  Apostle  defines 
for  us  the  conditions  on  which  Christian  experience 
will  be  joyful  and  tranquil.  It  is  'in  believing,'  not 
in  certain  other  exercises  of  mind,  that  these  blessings 
are  to  be  realised.  And  the  forgetfulness  of  that 
plain  fact  leads  to  many  good  people's  religion  being 
very  much  more  gloomy  and  disturbed  than  God 
meant  it  to  be.  For  a  large  part  of  it  consists  in 
sadly  testing  their  spiritual  state,  and  gazing  at  their 
failures  and  imperfections.  There  is  nothing  cheerful 
or  tranquillising  in  grubbing  among  the  evils  of  your 
own  heart,  and  it  is  quite  possible  to  do  that  too  much 
and  too  exclusively.  If  your  favourite  subject  of 
contemplation  in  your  religious  thinking  is  yourself, 
no  wonder  that  you  do  not  get  much  joy  and  peace 
out  of  that.  If  you  do,  it  will  be  of  a  false  kind.  If 
you  are  thinking  more  about  your  own  imperfections 
than  about  Christ's  pardon,  more  about  the  defects  of 
your  own  love  to  Him  than  about  the  perfection  of 
His  love  to  you,  if  instead  of  practising  faith  you  are 
absorbed  in  self-examination,  and  instead  of  saying 
to  yourself,  'I  know  how  foul  and  unworthy  I  am, 
but  I  look  away  from  myself  to  my  Saviour,'  you  are 
bewailing  your  sins  and  doubting  whether  you  are  a 
Christian,  you  need  not  expect  God's  angels  of  joy  and 
peace  to  nestle  in  your  heart.  It  is  '  in  believing,'  and 
not  in  other  forms  of  religious  contemplation,  however 
needful  these  may  in  their  places  be,  that  these  fair 
twin  sisters  come  to  us  and  make  their  abode  with  us. 

Then,  the  second  step  in  this  tracing  of  the  origin  of 
the  hope  which  has  the  brighter  source  is  the  con- 
sideration that  the  joy  and  peace  which  spring  from 
faith,  in  their  turn  produce  that  confident  anticipation 
of  future  and  progressive  good. 


342         EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.xv. 

Herein  lies  the  distinguishing  blessedness  of  the 
Christian  joy  and  peace,  in  that  they  carry  in  them- 
selves the  pledge  of  their  own  eternity.  Here,  and 
here  only,  the  mad  boast  which  is  doomed  to  be  so 
miserably  falsified  when  applied  to  earthly  gladness  is 
simple  truth.  Here  'to-morrow  shall  be  as  this  day 
and  much  more  abundant.'  Such  joy  has  nothing  in 
itself  which  betokens  exhaustion,  as  all  the  less  pure 
joys  of  earth  have.  It  is  manifestly  not  born  for 
death,  as  are  they.  It  is  not  fated,  like  all  earthly 
emotions  or  passions,  to  expire  in  the  moment  of  its 
completeness,  or  even  by  sudden  revulsion  to  be 
succeeded  by  its  opposite.  Its  sweetness  has  no  after 
pang  of  bitterness.  It  is  not  true  of  this  gladness, 
that  'Hereof  cometh  in  the  end  despondency  and 
madness,'  but  its  destiny  is  to  '  remain '  as  long  as  the 
soul  in  which  it  unfolds  shall  exist,  and  '  to  be  full ' 
as  long  as  the  source  from  which  it  flows  does  not 
run  dry. 

So  that  the  more  we  experience  the  present  blessed- 
ness, which  faith  in  Christ  brings  us,  the  more  shall  we 
be  sure  that  nothing  in  the  future,  either  in  or  beyond 
time,  can  put  an  end  to  it ;  and  hence  a  hope  that  looks 
with  confident  eyes  across  the  gorge  of  death,  to  the 
'  shining  tablelands '  on  the  other  side,  and  is  as  calm 
as  certitude,  shall  be  ours.  To  the  Christian  soul, 
rejoicing  in  the  conscious  exercise  of  faith  and  the 
conscious  possession  of  its  blessed  results,  the  ter- 
mination of  a  communion  with  Christ,  so  real  and 
spiritual,  by  such  a  trivial  accident  as  death,  seems 
wildly  absurd  and  therefore  utterly  impossible.  Just 
as  Christ's  Resurrection  seems  inevitable  as  soon  as  we 
grasp  the  truth  of  His  divine  nature,  and  it  becomes 
manifestly  impossible  that  He,  being  such  as  He  is — 


vs.  4,13]  TWO  FOUNTAINS,  ONE  STREAM  343 

should  be  holden  of  death,'  being  such  as  it  is,  so  for 
His  children,  when  once  they  come  to  know  the 
realities  of  fellowship  with  their  Lord,  they  feel  the 
entire  dissimilarity  of  these  to  anything  in  the  realm 
which  is  subjected  to  the  power  of  death,  and  to  know 
it  to  be  as  impossible  that  these  purely  spiritual  ex- 
periences should  be  reduced  to  inactivity,  or  meddled 
with  by  it,  as  that  a  thought  should  be  bound  with 
a  cord  or  a  feeling  fastened  with  fetters.  They, 
and  death,  belong  to  two  different  regions.  It  can 
work  its  will  on  'this  wide  world,  and  all  its  fading 
sweets ' — but  is  powerless  in  the  still  place  where  the 
soul  and  Jesus  hold  converse,  and  all  His  joy  passes 
into  His  servant's  heart.  I  saw,  not  long  since,  in  a 
wood  a  mass  of  blue  wild  hyacinths,  that  looked  like  a 
little  bit  of  heaven  dropped  down  upon  earth.  You 
and  I  may  have  such  a  tiny  bit  of  heaven  itself  lying 
amidst  all  the  tangle  of  our  daily  lives,  if  only  we  put 
our  trust  in  Christ,  and  so  get  into  our  hearts  some 
little  portion  of  that  joy  that  is  unspeakable,  and  that 
peace  that  passeth  understanding. 

Thus,  then,  the  sorrows  of  the  earthly  experience 
and  the  joys  of  the  Christian  life  will  blend  together 
to  produce  the  one  blessed  result  of  a  hope  that  is  full 
of  certainty,  and  is  the  assurance  of  immortality. 
There  is  no  rainbow  in  the  sky  unless  there  be  both  a 
black  cloud  and  bright  sunshine.  So,  on  the  blackest, 
thickest  thunder-mass  of  our  sorrows,  if  smitten  into 
moist  light  by  the  sunshine  of  joy  and  peace  drawn 
from  Jesus  Christ  by  faith,  there  may  be  painted  the 
rainbow  of  hope,  the  many-coloured,  steadfast  token 
of  the  faithful  covenant  of  the  faithful  God. 


JOY  AND  PEACE  IN  BELIEVING 

'  The  God  of  hope  fill  you  with  all  joy  and  peace  in  believing,  that  ye  may 
abound  in  hope,  through  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost.'— Romans  xv.  13. 

With  this  comprehensive  and  lofty  petition  the 
Apostle  closes  his  exhortation  to  the  factions  in  the 
Roman  Church  to  be  at  unity.  The  form  of  the  prayer 
is  moulded  by  the  last  words  of  a  quotation  which  he 
has  just  made,  which  says  that  in  the  coming  Messiah 
'  shall  the  Gentiles  hope.'  But  the  prayer  itself  is  not 
an  instance  of  being  led  away  by  a  word — in  form, 
indeed,  it  is  shaped  by  verbal  resemblance ;  in  substance 
it  points  to  the  true  remedy  for  religious  controversy. 
Fill  the  contending  parties  with  a  fuller  spiritual  life, 
and  the  ground  of  their  differences  will  begin  to 
dwindle,  and  look  very  contemptible.  When  the  tide 
rises,  the  little  pools  on  the  rocks  are  all  merged  into 
one. 

But  we  may  pass  beyond  the  immediate  application 
of  these  words,  and  see  in  them  the  wish,  which  is  also 
a  promise,  and  like  the  exhibition  of  every  ideal  is  a 
command.  This  is  Paul's  conception  of  the  Christian 
life  as  it  might  and  should  be,  in  one  aspect.  You 
notice  that  there  is  not  a  word  in  it  about  conduct.  It 
goes  far  deeper  than  action.  It  deals  with  the  springs 
of  action  in  the  individual  life.  It  is  the  depths  of 
spiritual  experience  here  set  forth  which  will  result  in 
actions  that  become  a  Christian.  And  in  these  days, 
when  all  around  us  we  see  a  shallow  conception  of 
Christianity,  as  if  it  were  concerned  principally  with 
conduct  and  men's  relations  with  one  another,  it  is  well 
to  go  down  into  the  depths,  and  to  remember  that 


V.  13]  JOY  AND  PEACE  IN  BELIEVING    345 

whilst  *  Do,  do,  do ! '  is  very  important,  *  Be,  be,  be ! '  is 
the  primary  commiandment.  Conduct  is  a  making 
visible  of  personality,  and  the  Scripture  teaching  which 
says  first  faith  and  then  works  is  profoundly  philo- 
sophical as  well  as  Christian.  So  we  turn  away  here 
from  externals  altogether,  and  regard  the  effect  of 
Christianity  on  the  inward  life. 

I.  I  wish  to  notice  man's  faith  and  God's  filling  as 
connected,  and  as  the  foundation  of  everything. 

'  The  God  of  hope  fill  you  .  .  .' — let  us  leave  out  the 
intervening  words  for  a  moment — '  in  believing.'  Now, 
you  notice  that  Paul  does  not  stay  to  tell  us  what  or 
whom  we  are  to  believe  in,  or  on.  He  takes  that  for 
granted,  and  his  thought  is  fastened,  for  the  moment, 
not  on  the  object  but  on  the  act  of  faith.  And  he 
wishes  to  drive  home  to  us  this,  that  the  attitude  of 
trust  is  the  necessary  prerequisite  condition  of  God's 
being  able  to  fill  a  man's  soul,  and  that  God's  being 
able  to  fill  a  man's  soul  is  the  necessary  consequence  of 
a  man's  trust.  Ah,  brethren,  we  cannot  altogether  shut 
God  out  from  our  spirits.  There  are  loving  and  gracious 
gifts  that,  as  our  Lord  tells  us,  He  makes  to  '  fall  on  the 
unthankful  and  the  evil.'  His  rain  is  not  like  the 
summer  showers  that  we  sometimes  see,  that  fall  in 
one  spot  and  leave  another  dry ;  nor  like  the  destruc- 
tive thunderstorms,  that  come  down  bringing  ruin  upon 
one  cane-brake  and  leave  the  plants  in  the  next  stand- 
ing upright.  But  the  best,  the  highest,  the  truly  divine 
gifts  which  He  is  yearning  to  give  to  us  all,  cannot  be 
given  except  there  be  consent,  trust,  and  desire  for 
them.  You  can  shut  your  hearts  or  you  can  open 
them.  And  just  as  the  wind  will  sigh  round  some 
hermetically  closed  chamber  in  vain  search  for  a 
cranny,  and  the  man  within  may  be  asphyxiated  though 


346         EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.  xv. 

the  atmosphere  is  surging  up  its  waves  all  round  his 
closed  domicile,  so  by  lack  of  our  faith,  which  is  at 
once  trust,  consent,  and  desire,  we  shut  out  the  gift 
with  which  God  would  fain  fill  our  spirits.  You  can 
take  a  porous  pottery  vessel,  wrap  it  up  in  waxcloth, 
pitch  it  all  over,  and  then  drop  it  into  mid- Atlantic, 
and  not  a  drop  will  find  its  way  in.  And  that  is  what 
we  can  do  with  ourselves,  so  that  although  in  Him  '  we 
live  and  move  and  have  our  being,'  and  are  like  the 
earthen  vessel  in  the  ocean,  no  drop  of  the  blessed 
moisture  will  ever  find  its  way  into  the  heart.  There 
must  be  man's  faith  before  there  can  be  God's  filling. 

Further,  this  relation  of  the  two  things  suggests 
to  us  that  a  consequence  of  a  Christian  man's  faith  is 
the  direct  action  of  God  upon  him.  Notice  how  the 
Apostle  puts  that  truth  in  a  double  form  here,  in 
order  that  he  may  emphasise  it,  using  one  form  of 
expression,  involving  the  divine,  direct  activity,  at  the 
beginning  of  his  prayer,  and  another  at  the  end,  and  so 
enclosing,  as  it  were,  within  a  great  casket  of  the  divine 
action,  all  the  blessings,  the  flashing  jewels,  which  he 
desires  his  Roman  friends  to  possess.  '  The  God  of  hope 
fill  you  .  .  .  through  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost.' 
I  wish  I  could  find  words  by  which  I  could  bear  in 
upon  the  ordinary  type  of  the  Evangelical  Christianity 
of  this  generation  anything  like  the  depth  and  earnest- 
ness of  my  own  conviction  that,  for  lack  of  a  propor- 
tionate development  of  that  great  truth,  of  the  direct 
action  of  the  giving  God  on  the  believing  heart,  it  is 
weakened  and  harmed  in  many  ways.  Surely  He  that 
made  my  spirit  can  touch  my  spirit ;  surely  He  who 
filleth  all  things  according  to  their  capacity  can 
Himself  enter  into  and  fill  the  spirit  which  is  opened 
for  Him  by  simple  faith.    We  do  not  need  wires  for 


V.  13]  JOY  AND  PEACE  IN  BELIEVING    347 

the  telegraphy  between  heaven  and  the  believing  soul, 
but  He  conies  directly  to,  and  speaks  in,  and  moves  upon, 
and  moulds  and  blesses,  the  waiting  heart.  And  until 
you  know,  by  your  own  experience  rightly  interpreted, 
that  there  is  such  a  direct  communion  between  the 
giving  God  and  the  recipient  believing  spirit,  you  have 
yet  to  learn  the  deepest  depth,  and  the  most  blessed 
blessedness,  of  Christian  faith  and  experience.  For 
lack  of  it  a  hundred  evils  beset  modern  Christianity. 
For  lack  of  it  men  fix  their  faith  so  exclusively  as 
that  the  faith  is  itself  harmed  thereby,  on  the  past  act 
of  Christ's  death  on  the  Cross.  You  will  not  suspect 
me  of  minimising  that,  but  I  beseech  you  remember 
one  climax  of  the  Apostle's  which,  though  not  bearing 
the  same  message  as  my  text,  is  in  harmony  with  it, 
'Christ  that  died,  yea,  rather,  that  is  risen  again, 
who  is  even  at  the  right  hand  of  God,  who  also 
maketh  intercession  for  us.'  And  remember  that 
Christ  Himself  bestows  the  gift  of  His  Divine  Spirit 
as  the  result  of  the  humiliation  and  the  agony  of  His 
Cross.  Faith  brings  the  direct  action  of  the  giving 
God. 

And  one  more  word  about  this  first  part  of  my  text : 
the  result  of  that  direct  action  is  complete — '  the  God 
of  hope  fill  you'  with  no  shrunken  stream,  no  painful 
trickle  out  of  a  narrow  rift  in  the  rock,  but  a  great 
exuberance  which  will  pass  into  a  man's  nature  in  the 
measure  of  his  capacity,  which  is  the  measure  of  his 
trust  and  desire.  There  are  two  limits  to  God's  gifts 
to  men :  the  one  is  the  limitless  limit  of  God's  infini- 
tude, the  other  is  the  working  limit — our  capacity — 
and  that  capacity  is  precisely  measured,  as  the  capacity 
of  some  built-in  vessel  might  be  measured  by  a  little 
gauge  on  the  outside,  by  our  faith.    *  The  God  of  hope ' 


348         EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS   [ch.xv. 

fills  you  in  'believing,'  and  'according  to  thy  faith 
shall  it  be  unto  thee.' 

II.  Notice  the  joy  and  peace  which  come  from  the 
direct  action  of  the  God  of  hope  on  the  believer's  soul. 

Novr,  it  is  not  only  towards  God  that  we  exercise 
trust,  but  wherever  it  is  exercised,  to  some  extent,  and 
in  the  measure  in  which  the  object  on  which  it  rests 
is  discovered  by  experience  to  be  worthy,  it  produces 
precisely  these  results.  Whoever  trusts  is  at  peace, 
just  as  much  as  he  trusts.  His  confidence  may  be  mis- 
taken, and  there  will  come  a  tremendous  awakening  if 
it  is,  and  the  peace  will  be  shattered  like  some  crystal 
vessel  dashed  upon  an  iron  pavement,  but  so  long  as  a 
man's  mind  and  heart  are  in  the  attitude  of  depend- 
ence upon  another,  conceived  to  be  dependable,  one 
knows  that  there  are  few  phases  of  tranquillity  and 
blessedness  which  are  sweeter  and  deeper  than  that. 
'  The  heart  of  her  husband  doth  safely  trust  in  her ' — 
that  is  one  illustration,  and  a  hundred  more  might  be 
given.  And  if  you  will  take  that  attitude  of  trust 
which,  even  when  it  twines  round  some  earthly  prop,  is 
upheld  for  a  time,  and  bears  bright  flowers — if  you  take 
it  and  twine  it  round  the  steadfast  foundations  of  the 
Throne  of  God,  what  can  shake  that  sure  repose? 
'  Joy  and  peace '  will  come  when  the  Christian  heart 
closes  with  its  trust,  which  is  God  in  Christ. 

He  that  believes  has  found  the  short,  sure  road  to 
joy  and  peace,  because  his  relations  are  set  right  with 
God.  For  these  relations  are  the  disturbing  elements  in 
all  earthly  tranquillity,  and  like  the  skeleton  at  the  feast 
in  all  earthly  joy,  and  a  man  can  never,  down  to  the 
roots  of  his  being,  be  at  rest  until  he  is  quite  sure  that 
there  is  nothing  wrong  between  him  and  God.  And  so 
believing,  we  come  to  that  root  of  all  real  gladness 


V.13]  JOY  AND  PEACE  IN  BELIEVING    349 

which  is  anything  better  than  a  crackling  of  thorns 
under  a  pot,  and  to  that  beginning  of  all  true  tran- 
quillity. Joy  in  the  Lord  and  peace  with  God  are 
the  parents  of  all  joy  and  peace  that  are  worthy  of 
the  name. 

And  that  same  faith  will  again  bring  these  two 
bright-winged  angels  into  the  most  saddened  and 
troubled  lives,  because  that  faith  brings  right  rela- 
tions with  ourselves.  For  our  inward  strifes  stuff 
thorns  into  the  pillow  of  our  repose,  and  mingle 
bitterness  with  the  sweetest,  foaming  draughts  of  our 
earthly  joys.  If  a  man's  conscience  and  inclinations 
pull  him  two  different  ways,  he  is  torn  asunder  as  by 
wild  horses.  If  a  man  has  a  hungry  heart,  for  ever 
yearning  after  unattained  and  impossible  blessings, 
then  there  is  no  rest  there.  If  a  man's  little  kingdom 
within  him  is  all  anarchical,  and  each  passion  and 
appetite  setting  up  for  itself,  then  there  is  no  tran- 
quillity. But  if  by  faith  we  let  the  God  of  hope  come 
in,  then  hungry  hearts  are  satisfied,  and  warring  dis- 
positions are  harmonised,  and  the  conscience  becomes 
quieted,  and  fair  imaginations  fill  the  chamber  of  the 
spirit,  and  the  man  is  at  rest,  because  he  himself  is 
unified  by  the  faith  and  fear  of  God. 

And  the  same  faith  brings  joy  and  peace  because  it 
sets  right  our  relations  with  other  people,  and  with  all 
externals.  If  I  am  living  in  an  atmosphere  of  trust, 
then  sorrow  will  never  be  absolute,  nor  have  exclusive 
monopoly  and  possession  of  my  spirit.  But  there  will 
be  the  paradox,  and  the  blessedness,  of  Christian 
experience,  '  as  sorrowful  yet  always  rejoicing.'  For 
the  joy  of  the  Christian  life  has  its  source  far  away 
beyond  the  swamps  from  which  the  sour  drops  of 
sorrow  may  trickle,  and  it  is  possible  that,  like  the 


350         EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS   [ch.xv. 

fabled  fire  that  burned  under  water,  the  joy  of  the 
Lord  may  be  bright  in  my  heart,  even  when  it  is 
drenched  in  floods  of  calamity  and  distress. 

And  so,  brethren,  the  joy  and  peace  that  come  from 
faith  will  fill  the  heart  which  trusts.  Only  remember 
how  emphatically  the  Apostle  here  puts  these  two 
things  together,  '  joy  and  peace  in  believing.'  As  long 
as,  and  not  a  moment  longer  than,  you  are  exercising 
the  Christian  act  of  trust,  will  you  be  experiencing 
the  Christian  blessedness  of  '  joy  and  peace.'  Unscrew 
the  pipe,  and  in  an  instant  the  water  ceases  to  flow. 
Touch  the  button  and  switch  off,  and  out  goes  the 
light.  Some  Christian  people  fancy  they  can  live  upon 
past  faith.  You  will  get  no  present  joy  and  peace  out 
of  past  faith.  The  rain  of  this  day  twelve  months  will 
not  moisten  the  parched  ground  of  to-day.  Yester- 
day's religion  was  all  used  up  yesterday.  And  if  you 
would  have  a  continuous  flow  of  joy  and  peace 
through  your  lives,  keep  up  a  uniform  habit  and 
attitude  of  trust  in  God.  You  will  get  it  then;  you 
will  get  it  in  no  other  way. 

III.  Lastly,  note  the  hope  which  springs  from  this 
experience  of  joy  and  peace. 

'  The  God  of  hope  fill  you  with  all  joy  and  peace  in 
believing,  that  ye  may  abound  in  hope.'  Here,  again, 
the  Apostle  does  not  trouble  himself  to  define  the 
object  of  the  hope.  In  this,  as  in  the  former  clause, 
his  attention  is  fixed  upon  the  emotion,  not  upon  that 
towards  which  it  goes  out.  And  just  as  there  was  no 
need  to  say  in  whom  it  was  that  the  Christian  man 
was  to  believe,  so  there  is  no  room  to  define  what  it  is 
that  the  Christian  man  has  a  right  to  hope  for.  For 
his  hope  is  intended  to  cover  all  the  future,  the  next 
moment,    or    to-morrow,    or    the    dimmest    distance 


T.13]  JOY  AND  PEACE  IN  BELIEVING    351 

where  time  has  ceased  to  be,  and  eternity  stands  un- 
moved. The  attitude  of  the  Christian  mind  ought  to 
be  a  cheery  optimism,  an  unconquerable  hope.  '  The 
best  has  yet  to  be '  is  the  true  Christian  thought  in 
contemplating  the  future  for  myself,  for  my  dear  ones, 
for  God's  Church,  and  for  God's  universe. 

And  the  truest  basis  on  which  that  hope  can  rest  is 
the  experience  granted  to  us,  on  condition  of  our  faith, 
of  a  present,  abundant  possession  of  the  joy  and  peace 
which  God  gives.  The  gladder  you  are  to-day,  if  the 
gladness  comes  from  the  right  source,  the  surer  you 
may  be  that  that  gladness  will  never  end.  That  is  not 
what  befalls  men  who  live  by  earthly  joys.  For  the 
more  poignant,  precious,  and,  as  we  faithlessly  think, 
indispensable  some  of  these  are  to  us,  the  more  into 
their  sweetest  sweetness  creeps  the  dread  thought: 
•  This  is  too  good  to  last ;  this  must  pass.'  We  never 
need  to  think  that  about  the  peace  and  joy  that  come 
to  us  through  believing.  For  they,  in  their  sweetness, 
prophesy  perpetuity.  I  need  not  dwell  upon  the 
thought  that  the  firmest,  most  personally  precious 
convictions  of  an  eternity  of  future  blessedness,  rise 
and  fall  in  a  Christian  consciousness  with  the  purity 
and  the  depth  of  its  own  experience  of  the  peace  and 
joy  of  the  Gospel.  The  more  you  have  of  Jesus  Christ 
in  your  lives  and  hearts  to-day,  the  surer  you  will  be 
that  whatever  death  may  do,  it  cannot  touch  that,  and 
the  more  ludicrously  impossible  it  will  seem  that  any- 
thing that  befalls  this  poor  body  can  touch  the  bond 
that  knits  us  to  Jesus  Christ.  Death  can  separate  us 
from  a  great  deal.  Its  sharp  scythe  cuts  through  all 
other  bonds,  but  its  edge  is  turned  when  it  is  tried 
against  the  golden  chain  that  binds  the  believing  soul 
to  the  Christ  in  whom  he  has  believed. 


352         EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.  xvi. 

So,  brethren,  there  is  the  ladder — begin  at  the 
bottom  step,  with  faith  in  Jesus  Christ.  That  will 
bring  God's  direct  action  into  your  spirit,  through  His 
Holy  Spirit,  and  that  one  gift  will  break  up  into  an 
endless  multiplicity  of  blessings,  just  as  a  beam  of 
light  spilt  upon  the  surface  of  the  ocean  breaks  into 
diamonds  in  every  wave,  and  that  *  joy  and  peace ' 
will  kindle  in  your  hearts  a  hope  fed  by  the  great 
words  of  the  Lord : '  Peace  I  leave  with  you,  my  peace  I 
give  unto  you,' '  My  joy  shall  remain  in  you,  and  your 
joy  shall  be  full,' '  He  that  liveth  and  belie veth  in  Me 
shall  never  die.* 


PHGSBB 

*  I  commend  unto  you  Phoebe  our  sister,  who  is  a  servant  of  the  Church  that  is 
at  Cenchrea :  2.  That  ye  receive  her  in  the  Lord,  worthily  of  the  Saints,  and  that 
ye  assist  her  in  whatsover  matter  she  may  have  need  of  you :  for  she  herself 
bath  been  a  succourer  of  many,  and  of  mine  own  self  .'—Romans  xvi.  1,  2  (R.V.)- 

This  is  an  outline  picture  of  an  else  wholly  unknown 
person.  She,  like  most  of  the  other  names  mentioned 
in  the  salutations  in  this  chapter,  has  had  a  singular 
fate.  Every  name,  shadowy  and  unreal  as  it  is  to  us, 
belonged  to  a  human  life  filled  with  hopes  and  fears, 
plunged  sometimes  in  the  depths  of  sorrows,  struggling 
with  anxieties  and  difficulties ;  and  all  the  agitations 
have  sunk  into  f orgetf ulness  and  calm.  There  is  left  to 
the  world  an  immortal  remembrance,  and  scarcely  a 
single  fact  associated  with  the  undying  names. 

Note  the  person  here  disclosed. 

A  little  rent  is  made  in  the  dark  curtain  through 
which  we  see  as  with  an  incandescent  light  concen- 
trated for  a  moment  upon  her,  one  of  the  many  good 


vs.  1,2]  PHCEBE  853 

women  who  helped  Paul,  as  their  sisters  had  helped 
Paul's  Master,  and  who  thereby  have  won,  little  as  either 
Paul  or  she  thought  it,  an  eternal  commemoration. 
Her  name  is  a  purely  idolatrous  one,  and  stamps  her  as 
a  Greek,  and  by  birth  probably  a  worshipper  of  Apollo. 
Her  Christian  associations  were  with  the  Church  at 
Cenchrea,  the  port  of  Corinth,  of  which  little  Christian 
community  nothing  further  is  known.  But  if  we  take 
into  account  the  hideous  immoralities  of  Corinth,  we 
shall  deem  it  probable  that  the  port,  with  its  shifting 
maritime  population,  was,  like  most  seaports,  a  soil  in 
which  goodness  was  hard  put  to  it  to  grow,  and  a 
church  had  much  against  which  to  struggle.  To  be  a 
Christian  at  Cenchrea  can  have  been  no  light  task. 
Travellers  in  Egypt  are  told  that  Port  Said  is  the 
wickedest  place  on  the  face  of  the  earth;  and  in 
Phoebe's  home  there  would  be  a  like  drift  of  disreput- 
ables of  both  sexes  and  of  all  nationalities.  It  was 
fitting  that  one  good  woman  should  be  recorded  as 
redeeming  womanhood  there.  We  learn  of  her  that 
she  was  a  *  servant,'  or,  as  the  margin  preferably  reads, 
a  '  deaconess  of  the  Church  which  is  at  Cenchrea ' ;  and 
in  that  capacity,  by  gentle  ministrations  and  the  exhi- 
bition of  purity  and  patient  love,  as  well  as  by  the 
gracious  administration  of  material  help,  had  been 
a  '  succourer  of  many.'  There  is  a  whole  world  of  un- 
mentioned  kindnesses  and  a  life  of  self-devotion  hidden 
away  under  these  few  words.  Possibly  the  succour 
which  she  administered  was  her  own  gift.  She  may 
have  been  rich  and  influential,  or  perhaps  she  but  dis- 
tributed the  Church's  bounty ;  but  in  any  case  the  gift 
was  sweetened  by  the  giver's  hand,  and  the  succour  was 
the  impartation  of  a  woman's  sympathy  more  than  the 
bestowment  of  a  donor's  gift.    Sometime  or  other,  and 

z 


354        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.  xvi. 

somehow  or  other,  she  had  had  the  honour  and  joy  of 
helping  Paul,  and  no  doubt  that  opportunity  would  be 
to  her  a  crown  of  service.  She  was  now  on  the  point 
of  taking  the  long  journey  to  Rome  on  her  own  business, 
and  the  Apostle  bespeaks  for  her  help  from  the  Roman 
Church  *  in  whatsoever  matter  she  may  have  need  of 
you,'  as  if  she  had  some  difficult  affair  on  hand,  and 
had  no  other  friends  in  the  city.  Possibly  then  she  was 
a  widow,  and  perhaps  had  had  some  lawsuit  or  business 
with  government  authorities,  with  whom  a  word  from 
some  of  her  brethren  in  Rome  might  stand  her  in  good 
stead.  Apparently  she  was  the  bearer  of  this  epistle, 
which  would  give  her  a  standing  at  once  in  the  Roman 
Church,  and  she  came  among  them  with  a  halo  round 
her  from  the  whole-hearted  commendation  of  the 
Apostle. 

Mark  the  lessons  from  this  little  picture. 

We  note  first  the  remarkable  illustration  here  given 
of  the  power  of  the  new  bond  of  a  common  faith. 
The  world  was  then  broken  up  into  sections,  which 
were  sometimes  bitterly  antagonistic  and  at  others 
merely  rigidly  exclusive.  The  only  bond  of  union  was 
the  iron  fetter  of  Rome,  which  crushed  the  people,  but 
did  not  knit  them  together.  But  here  are  Paul  the 
Jew,  Phoebe  the  Greek,  and  the  Roman  readers  of  the 
epistle,  all  fused  together  by  the  power  of  the  divine 
love  that  melted  their  hearts,  and  the  common  faith 
that  unified  their  lives.  The  list  of  names  in  this 
chapter,  comprising  as  it  does  men  and  women  of  many 
nationalities,  and  some  slaves  as  well  as  freemen,  is 
itself  a  wonderful  testimony  of  the  truth  of  Paul's 
triumphant  exclamation  in  another  epistle,  that  in 
Christ  there  is  *  neither  Jew  nor  Greek,  bond  nor  free, 
male  nor  female.* 


vs.  1, 2]  PHOEBE  855 

The  clefts  have  closed,  and  the  very  line  of  demarca- 
tion is  obliterated  ;  and  these  clefts  were  deeper  than 
any  of  which  we  moderns  have  had  experience.  It 
remains  something  like  a  miracle  that  the  members  of 
Paul's  churches  could  ever  be  brought  together,  and 
that  their  consciousness  of  oneness  could  ever  over- 
power the  tremendous  divisive  forces.  We  sometimes 
wonder  at  their  bickerings  ;  we  ought  rather  to  wonder 
at  their  unity,  and  be  ashamed  of  the  importance 
which  we  attach  to  our  infinitely  slighter  mutual  dis- 
agreements. The  bond  that  was  sufficient  to  make 
the  early  Christians  all  one  in  Christ  Jesus  seems  to 
have  lost  its  binding  power  to-day,  and,  like  an  used-up 
elastic  band,  to  have  no  clasping  grip  left  in  it. 

Another  thought  which  we  may  connect  with  the 
name  of  Phoebe  is  the  characteristic  place  of  women  in 
Christianity. 

The  place  of  woman  amongst  the  Jews  was  indeed  free 
and  honourable  as  compared  with  her  position  either 
in  Greece  or  Rome,  but  in  none  of  them  was  she  placed 
on  the  level  of  man,  nor  regarded  mainly  in  the  aspect 
of  an  equal  possessor  of  the  same  life  of  the  Spirit. 
But  a  religion  which  admits  her  to  precisely  the  same 
position  of  a  supernatural  life  as  is  granted  to  man, 
necessarily  relegates  to  a  subordinate  position  all 
differences  of  sex  as  it  does  all  other  natural  distinc- 
tions. The  women  who  ministered  to  Jesus  of  their 
substance,  the  two  sisters  of  Bethany,  the  mourners  at 
Calvary,  the  three  who  went  through  the  morning 
twilight  to  the  tomb,  were  but  the  foremost  con- 
spicuous figures  in  a  great  company  through  all  the 
ages  who  have  owed  to  Jesus  their  redemption,  not 
only  from  the  slavery  of  sin,  but  from  the  stigma  of 
inferiority  as  man's  drudge  or  toy.    To  the  world  in 


856        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.  xvi. 

which  Paul  lived  it  was  a  strange,  new  thought  that 
women  could  share  with  man  in  his  loftiest  emotions. 
Historically  the  emancipation  of  one  half  of  the  human 
race  is  the  direct  result  of  the  Christian  principle  that 
all  are  one  in  Christ  Jesus.  In  modern  life  the  eman- 
cipation has  been  too  often  divorced  from  its  one  sure 
basis,  and  we  have  become  familiar  with  the  sight  of 
the  '  advanced '  women  who  have  advanced  so  far  as  to 
have  lost  sight  of  the  Christ  to  whom  they  owe  their 
freedom.  The  picture  of  Phoebe  in  our  text  might  well 
be  commended  to  all  such  as  setting  forth  the  most 
womanlike  ideal.  She  was  *  a  succour er  of  many.'  Her 
ministry  was  a  ministry  of  help ;  and  surely  such 
gentle  ministry  is  that  which  most  befits  the  woman's 
heart  and  comes  most  graciously  to  the  woman's 
fingers. 

PhcBbe  then  may  well  represent  to  us  the  ministry  of 
succour  in  this  world  of  woe  and  need.  There  is  ever  a 
cry,  even  in  apparently  successful  lives,  for  help  and  a 
helper.  Man's  clumsy  hand  is  but  too  apt  to  hurt 
where  it  strives  to  soothe,  and  nature  itself  seems  to 
devolve  on  the  swifter  sympathies  and  more  deli- 
cate perceptions  of  woman  the  joy  of  binding  up 
wounded  spirits.  In  the  verses  immediately  following 
our  text  we  read  of  another  woman  to  whom  was 
entrusted  a  more  conspicuous  and  direct  form  of 
service.  Priscilla  'taught  Apollos  the  way  of  God 
more  perfectly,'  and  is  traditionally  represented  as 
being  united  with  her  husband  in  evangelistic  work. 
But  it  is  not  merely  prejudice  which  takes  Phoebe 
rather  than  Priscilla  as  the  characteristic  type  of 
wom.an's  special  ministry.  We  must  remember  our 
Lord's  teaching,  that  the  giver  of  '  a  cup  of  cold  water 
in  the  name  of  a  prophet '  in  some  measure  shares  in  the 


vs.  1,2]      PRISCILLA  AND  AQUILA  357 

prophet's  work,  and  will  surely  share  in  the  prophet's 
reward.  She  who  helped  Paul  must  have  entered  into 
the  spirit  of  Paul's  labours ;  and  He  to  whom  all  service 
that  is  done  from  the  same  motive  is  one  in  essence, 
makes  no  difference  between  him  whose  thirsty  lips 
drink  and  her  whose  loving  hand  presents  the  cup  of 
cold  water.  *  Small  service  is  true  service  while  it  lasts.' 
Paul  and  Phoebe  were  one  in  ministry  and  one  in  its 
recompense. 

We  may  further  see  in  her  a  foreshadowing  of  the 
reward  of  lowly  service,  though  it  be  only  the  service 
of  help.  Little  did  Phcebe  dream  that  her  name  would 
have  an  eternal  commemoration  of  her  unnoticed  deeds 
of  kindness  and  aid,  standing  forth  to  later  genera- 
tions and  peoples  of  whom  she  knew  nothing,  as  worthy 
of  eternal  remembrance.  For  those  of  us  who  have 
to  serve  unnoticed  and  unknown,  here  is  an  instance 
and  a  prophecy  which  may  stimulate  and  encourage. 
*  Surely  I  will  never  forget  any  of  their  works '  is  a 
gracious  promise  which  the  most  obscure  and  humble 
of  us  may  take  to  heart,  and  sustained  by  which,  we 
may  patiently  pursue  a  way  on  which  there  are  *  none  to 
praise  and  very  few  to  love.'  It  matters  little  whether 
our  work  be  noticed  or  recorded  by  men,  so  long  as  we 
know  that  it  is  written  in  the  Lamb's  book  of  life  and 
that  He  will  one  day  proclaim  it  *  before  the  Father  in 
heaven  and  His  angels.' 

PRISCILLA  AND  AQUILA 

*  Greet  Prisoilla  and  Aquila  my  helpers  in  Christ  Jesus;  i.  (Who  have  for  my 
life  laid  down  their  own  necks  :  unto  whom  not  only  I  give  thanks,  but  so  all  the 
churches  of  the  Gentiles :)  5.  Likewise  greet  the  church  that  is  in  their  house.'— 
Romans  xvi.  3-5. 

It  has  struck  me  that  this  wedded  couple  present,  even 
in  the  scanty  notices  that  we  have  of  them,  some 


358        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.xvi. 

interesting  points  which  may  be  worth  while  gathering 
together. 

Now,  to  begin  with,  we  are  told  that  Aquila  was  a 
Jew.  We  are  not  told  whether  Priscilla  was  a  Jewess 
or  no.  So  far  as  her  name  is  concerned,  she  may  have 
been,  and  very  probably  was,  a  Roman,  and,  if  so,  we 
have  in  their  case  a  '  mixed  marriage,'  such  as  was  not 
uncommon  then,  and  of  which  Timothy's  parents  give 
another  example.  She  is  sometimes  called  Prisca, 
which  was  her  proper  name,  and  sometimes  Priscilla, 
an  affectionate  diminutive.  The  two  had  been  living 
in  Rome,  and  had  been  banished  under  the  decree  of 
the  Emperor,  just  as  Jews  have  been  banished  from 
England  and  from  every  country  in  Europe  again  and 
again.  They  came  from  Rome  to  Corinth,  and  were, 
perhaps,  intending  to  go  back  to  Aquila's  native  place, 
Pontus,  when  Paul  met  them  in  the  latter  city,  and 
changed  their  whole  lives.  His  association  with  them 
began  in  a  purely  commercial  partnership.  But  as 
they  abode  together  and  worked  at  their  trade,  there 
would  be  many  earnest  talks  about  the  Christ,  and  these 
ended  in  both  husband  and  wife  becoming  disciples. 
The  bond  thus  knit  was  too  close  to  be  easily  severed, 
and  so,  when  Paul  sailed  across  the  JGgean  for 
Ephesus,  his  two  new  friends  kept  with  him,  which 
they  would  be  the  more  ready  to  do,  as  they  had 
no  settled  home.  They  remained  with  him  during  his 
somewhat  lengthened  stay  in  the  great  Asiatic  city ; 
for  we  find  in  the  first  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians, 
which  was  written  from  Ephesus  about  that  time,  that 
the  Apostle  sends  greetings  from  '  Priscilla  and  Aquila 
and  the  Church  which  is  in  their  house.'  But  when 
Paul  left  Ephesus  they  seem  to  have  stayed  behind, 
and  afterwards  to  have  gone  their  own  way. 


vs.  3-5]       PRISCILLA  AND  AQUILA  359 

About  a  year  after  the  first  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians 
was  sent  from  Ephesus,  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans 
was  written,  and  we  find  there  the  salutation  to 
Priscilla  and  Aquila  which  is  my  text.  So  this  wan- 
dering couple  were  back  again  in  Rome  by  that 
time,  and  settled  down  there  for  a  while.  They  are 
then  lost  sight  of  for  some  time,  but  probably  they 
returned  to  Ephesus.  Once  more  we  catch  a  glimpse 
of  them  in  Paul's  last  letter,  written  some  seven  or 
eight  years  after  that  to  the  Romans.  The  Apostle 
knows  that  death  is  near,  and,  at  that  supreme 
moment,  his  heart  goes  out  to  these  two  faithful 
companions,  and  he  sends  them  a  parting  token  of 
his  undying  love.  There  are  only  two  messages  to 
friends  in  the  second  Epistle  to  Timothy,  and  one  of 
these  is  to  Prisca  and  Aquila.  At  the  mouth  of  the 
valley  of  the  shadow  of  death  he  remembered  the  old 
days  in  Corinth,  and  the,  to  us,  unknown  instance  of 
devotion  which  these  two  had  shown,  when,  for  his  life, 
they  laid  down  their  own  necks. 

Such  is  all  that  we  know  of  Priscilla  and  Aquila. 
Can  we  gather  any  lessons  from  these  scattered  notices 
thus  thrown  together  ? 

I.  Here  is  an  object  lesson  as  to  the  hallowing  effect 
of  Christianity  on  domestic  life  and  love. 

Did  you  ever  notice  that  in  the  majority  of  the 
places  where  these  two  are  named,  if  we  adopt  the 
better  readings,  Priscilla's  name  comes  first?  She 
seems  to  have  been  '  the  better  man  of  the  two ' ;  and 
Aquila  drops  comparatively  into  the  background. 
Now,  such  a  couple,  and  a  couple  in  which  the  wife  took 
the  foremost  place,  was  an  absolute  impossibility  in 
heathenism.  They  are  a  specimen  of  what  Christianity 
did  in  the  primitive  age,  all  over  the  Empire,  and  is 


360        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.  xvi. 

doing  to-day,  everywhere — lifting  woman  to  her  proper 
place.  These  two,  yoked  together  in  *  all  exercise  of 
noble  end,'  and  helping  one  another  in  Christian  work, 
and  bracketed  together  by  the  Apostle,  who  puts  the 
wife  first,  as  his  fellow-helpers  in  Christ  Jesus,  stands 
before  us  as  a  living  picture  of  what  our  sweet  and 
sacred  family  life  and  earthly  loves  may  be  glorified 
into,  if  the  light  from  heaven  shines  down  upon  them, 
and  is  thankfully  received  into  them. 

Such  a  house  as  the  house  of  Prisca  and  Aquila  is 
the  product  of  Christianity,  and  such  ought  to  be  the 
house  of  every  professing  Christian.  For  we  should 
all  make  our  homes  as  •  tabernacles  of  the  righteous,' 
in  which  the  voice  of  joy  and  rejoicing  is  ever  heard. 
Not  only  wedded  love,  but  family  love,  and  all  earthly 
love,  are  then  most  precious,  when  into  them  there 
flows  the  ennobling,  the  calming,  the  transfiguring 
thought  of  Christ  and  His  love  to  us. 

Again,  notice  that,  even  in  these  scanty  references 
to  our  two  friends,  there  twice  occurs  that  remark- 
able expression  'the  church  that  is  in  their  house.' 
Now,  I  suppose  that  that  gives  us  a  little  glimpse  into 
the  rudimentary  condition  of  public  worship  in  the 
primitive  church.  It  was  centuries  after  the  time  of 
Priscilla  and  Aquila  before  circumstances  permitted 
Christians  to  have  buildings  devoted  exclusively  to 
public  worship.  Up  to  a  very  much  later  period  than 
that  which  is  covered  by  the  New  Testament,  they 
gathered  together  wherever  was  most  convenient. 
And,  I  suppose,  that  both  in  Rome  and  Ephesus,  this 
husband  and  wife  had  some  room — perhaps  the  work- 
shop where  they  made  their  tents,  spacious  enough  for 
some  of  the  Christians  of  the  city  to  meet  together 
in.     One  would  like  people  who  talk  so  much  about 


vs. 35]       PRISCILLA  AND  AQUILA  361 

•the  Church,'  and  refuse  the  name  to  individual 
societies  of  Christians,  and  even  to  an  aggregate  of 
these,  unless  it  has  *  bishops,'  to  explain  how  the  little 
gathering  of  twenty  or  thirty  people  in  the  workshop 
attached  to  Aquila's  house,  is  called  by  the  Apostle 
without  hesitation  '  the  church  which  is  in  their  house.' 
It  was  a  part  of  the  Holy  Catholic  Church,  but  it  was 
also  'a  Church,'  complete  in  itself,  though  small  in 
numbers.  We  have  here  not  only  a  glimpse  into  the 
manner  of  public  worship  in  early  times,  but  we  may 
learn  something  of  far  more  consequence  for  us,  and 
find  here  a  suggestion  of  what  our  homes  ought  to  be. 
'The  Church  that  is  in  thy  house' — fathers  and 
mothers  that  are  responsible  for  your  homes  and 
their  religious  atmosphere,  ask  yourselves  if  any  one 
would  say  that  about  your  houses,  and  if  they  could 
not,  why  not  ? 

II.  We  may  get  here  another  object  lesson  as  to  the 
hallowing  of  common  life,  trade,  and  travel. 

It  does  not  appear  that,  after  their  stay  in  Ephesus, 
Aquila  and  his  wife  were  closely  attached  to  Paul's 
person,  and  certainly  they  did  not  take  any  part  as 
members  of  what  we  may  call  his  evangelistic  staff. 
They  seem  to  have  gone  their  own  way,  and  as  far  as 
the  scanty  notices  carry  us,  they  did  not  meet  Paul 
again,  after  the  time  when  they  parted  in  Ephesus. 
Their  gipsy  life  was  probably  occasioned  by  Aquila's 
going  about — as  was  the  custom  in  old  days  when  there 
were  no  trades-unions  or  organised  centres  of  a  special 
industry — to  look  for  work  where  he  could  find  it. 
When  he  had  made  tents  in  Ephesus  for  a  while,  he 
would  go  on  somewhere  else,  and  take  temporary 
lodgings  there.  Thus  he  wandered  about  as  a  working 
man.    Yet  Paul  calls  him  his  '  fellow  worker  in  Christ 


362        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.xvi. 

Jesus ' ;  and  he  had,  as  we  saw,  a  Church  in  his  house. 
A  roving  life  of  that  sort  is  not  generally  supposed  to 
be  conducive  to  depth  of  spiritual  life.  But  their 
wandering  course  did  not  hurt  these  two.  They  took 
their  religion  with  them.  It  did  not  depend  on  locality, 
as  does  that  of  a  great  many  people  who  are  very 
religious  in  the  town  where  they  live,  and,  when  they 
go  away  for  a  holiday,  seem  to  leave  their  religion, 
along  with  their  silver  plate,  at  home.  But  no  matter 
whether  they  were  in  Corinth  or  Ephesus  or  Rome, 
Aquila  and  Priscilla  took  their  Lord  and  Master  with 
them,  and  while  working  at  their  camel's-hair  tents, 
they  were  serving  God. 

Dear  brethren,  what  we  want  is  not  half  so  much 
preachers  such  as  my  brethren  and  I,  as  Christian 
tradesmen  and  merchants  and  travellers,  like  Aquila 
and  Priscilla. 

III.  Again,  we  may  see  here  a  suggestion  of  the 
unexpected  issues  of  our  lives. 

Think  of  that  complicated  chain  of  circumstances, 
one  end  of  which  was  round  Aquila  and  the  other  round 
the  young  Pharisee  in  Jerusalem.  It  steadily  drew 
them  together  until  they  met  in  that  lodging  at 
Corinth.  Claudius,  in  the  fullness  of  his  absolute 
power,  said,  '  Turn  all  these  wretched  Jews  out  of  my 
city.  I  will  not  have  it  polluted  with  them  any  more. 
Get  rid  of  them ! '  So  these  two  were  uprooted,  and 
drifted  to  Corinth.  We  do  not  know  why  they  chose 
to  go  thither ;  perhaps  they  themselves  did  not  know 
why;  but  God  knew.  And  while  they  were  coming 
thither  from  the  west,  Paul  was  coming  thither  from 
the  east  and  north.  He  was  '  prevented  by  the  Spirit 
from  speaking  in  Asia,'  and  driven  across  the  sea 
against  his  intention  to  Neapolis,  and  hounded  out 


vs.  3-5]       PRISCILLA  AND  AQUILA  363 

of  Philippi  and  Thessalonica  and  Bersea ;  and  turned 
superciliously  away  from  Athens ;  and  so  at  last 
found  himself  in  Corinth,  face  to  face  with  the  tent- 
maker  from  Rome  and  his  wife.  Then  one  of  the  two 
men  said,  'Let  us  join  partnership  together,  and  set 
up  here  as  tent-makers  for  a  time.'  What  came  out 
of  this  unintended  and  apparently  chance  meeting  ? 

The  first  thing  was  the  conversion  of  Aquila  and  his 
wife  ;  and  the  effects  of  that  are  being  realised  by 
them  in  heaven  at  this  moment,  and  will  go  on  to  all 
eternity. 

So,  in  the  infinite  complexity  of  events,  do  not  let  us 
worry  ourselves  by  forecasting,  but  let  us  trust,  and  be 
sure  that  the  Hand  which  is  pushing  us  is  pushing  us 
in  the  right  direction,  and  that  He  will  bring  us,  by 
a  right,  though  a  roundabout  way,  to  the  City  of 
Habitation.  It  seems  to  me  that  we  poor,  blind 
creatures  in  this  world  are  somewhat  like  a  man  in 
a  prison,  groping  with  his  hand  in  the  dark  along  the 
wall,  and  all  unawares  touching  a  spring  which  moves 
a  stone,  disclosing  an  aperture  that  lets  in  a  breath  of 
purer  air,  and  opens  the  way  to  freedom.  So  we  go  on 
as  if  stumbling  in  the  dark,  and  presently,  without 
our  knowing  what  we  do,  by  some  trivial  act  we 
originate  a  train  of  events  which  influences  our  whole 
future. 

Again,  when  Aquila  and  Priscilla  reached  Ephesus 
they  formed  another  chance  acquaintance  in  the  per- 
son of  a  brilliant  young  Alexandrian,  whose  name  was 
Apollos.  They  found  that  he  had  good  intentions  and 
a  good  heart,  but  a  head  very  scantily  furnished  with 
the  knowledge  of  the  Gospel.  So  they  took  him  in  hand, 
just  as  Paul  had  taken  them.  If  I  may  use  such  a 
phrase,  they  did  not  know  how  large  a  fish  they  had 


364        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.  xvi. 

caught.  They  had  no  idea  what  a  mighty  power  for 
Christ  was  lying  dormant  in  that  young  man  from 
Alexandria  who  knew  so  much  less  than  they  did. 
They  instructed  ApoUos,  and  Apollos  became  second 
only  to  Paul  in  the  power  of  preaching  the  Gospel. 
So  the  circle  widens  and  widens.  God's  grace  fructifies 
from  one  man  to  another,  spreading  onward  and  out- 
ward. And  all  Apollos'  converts,  and  their  converts, 
and  theirs  again,  right  away  down  the  ages,  we  may 
trace  back  to  Priscilla  and  Aquila. 

So  do  not  let  us  be  anxious  about  the  further  end  of 
our  deeds — viz.  their  results  ;  but  be  careful  about  the 
nearer  end  of  them — viz.  their  motives ;  and  God  will 
look  after  the  other  end.  Seeing  that  '  thou  knowest 
not  which  shall  prosper,  whether  this  or  that,'  or  how 
much  any  of  them  will  prosper,  let  us  grasp  all 
opportunities  to  do  His  will  and  glorify  His  name. 

IV.  Further,  here  we  have  an  instance  of  the  heroic 
self-devotion  which  love  to  Christ  kindles. 

•  For  my  sake  they  laid  down  their  own  necks.'  We 
do  not  know  to  what  Paul  is  referring :  perhaps  to 
that  tumult  in  Ephesus,  where  he  certainly  was  in 
danger.  But  the  language  seems  rather  more  em- 
phatic than  such  danger  would  warrant.  Probably  it 
was  at  some  perilous  juncture  of  which  we  know 
nothing  (for  we  know  very  little,  after  all,  of  the 
details  of  the  Apostle's  life),  in  which  Aquila  and 
Priscilla  had  said,  *  Take  us  and  let  him  go.  He  can 
do  a  great  deal  more  for  God  than  we  can  do.  We 
will  put  our  heads  on  the  block,  if  he  may  still  live.' 
That  magnanimous  self-surrender  was  a  wonderful 
token  of  the  passionate  admiration  and  love  which  the 
Apostle  inspired,  but  its  deepest  motive  was  love  to 
Christ  and  not  to  Paul  only. 


vs. 3-6]  TWO  HOUSEHOLDS  365 

Faith  in  Christ  and  love  to  Him  ought  to  turn 
cowards  into  heroes,  to  destroy  thoughts  of  self,  and 
to  make  the  utmost  self-sacrifice  natural,  blessed,  and 
easy.  We  are  not  called  upon  to  exercise  heroism  like 
Priscilla's  and  Aquila's,  but  there  is  as  much  heroism 
needed  for  persistently  Christian  life,  in  our  prosaic 
daily  circumstances,  as  has  carried  many  a  martyr  to 
the  block,  and  many  a  tremulous  woman  to  the  pyre. 
We  can  all  be  heroes;  and  if  the  love  of  Christ  is 
in  us,  as  it  should  be,  we  shall  all  be  ready  to  *  yield 
ourselves  living  sacrifices,  which  is  our  reasonable 
service.' 

Long  years  after,  the  Apostle,  on  the  further  edge  of 
life,  looked  back  over  it  all;  and,  whilst  much  had 
become  dim,  and  some  trusted  friends  had  dropped 
away,  like  Demas,  he  saw  these  two,  and  waved  them 
his  last  greeting  before  he  turned  to  the  executioner — 
•  Salute  Prisca  and  Aquila.'  Paul's  Master  is  not  less 
mindful  of  His  friends'  love,  or  less  eloquent  in  the 
praise  of  their  faithfulness,  or  less  sure  to  reward 
them  with  the  crown  of  glory.  *  Whoso  confesseth 
Me  before  men,  him  will  I  also  confess  before  the 
angels  in  heaven.' 


TWO  HOUSEHOLDS 

'.  .  .  Salute  them  which  are  of  Aristobulus'  household.    II.  . .  .  Greet  them 
that  be  of  the  household  of  Narcissus,  which  are  in  the  Lord.'— Romans  xvi.  10, 11. 

There  does  not  seem  much  to  be  got  out  of  these  two 
sets  of  salutations  to  two  households  in  Rome ;  but  if 
we  look  at  them  with  eyes  in  our  heads,  and  some 
sympathy  in  our  hearts,  I  think  we  shall  get  lessons 
worth  the  treasuring. 


366        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.xvi. 

In  the  first  place,  here  are  two  sets  of  people,  members 
of  two  different  households,  and  that  means  mainly,  if 
not  exclusively,  slaves.  In  the  next  place,  in  each  case 
there  was  but  a  section  of  the  household  which  was 
Christian.  In  the  third  place,  in  neither  household  is 
the  master  included  in  the  greeting.  So  in  neither 
case  was  he  a  Christian. 

We  do  not  know  anything  about  these  two  persons, 
men  of  position  evidently,  who  had  large  households. 
But  the  most  learned  of  our  living  English  com- 
mentators of  the  New  Testament  has  advanced  a  very 
reasonable  conjecture  in  regard  to  each  of  them.  As 
to  the  first  of  them,  Aristobulus :  that  wicked  old  King 
Herod,  in  whose  life  Christ  was  born,  had  a  grandson 
of  the  name,  who  spent  all  his  life  in  Rome,  and  was  in 
close  relations  with  the  Emperor  of  that  day.  He  had 
died  some  little  time  before  the  writing  of  this  letter. 
As  to  the  second  of  them,  there  is  a  very  notorious 
Narcissus,  who  plays  a  great  part  in  the  history  of 
Rome  just  a  little  while  before  Paul's  period  there,  and 
he,  too,  was  dead.  And  it  is  more  than  probable  that 
the  slaves  and  retainers  of  these  two  men  were  trans- 
ferred in  both  cases  to  the  emperor's  household  and 
held  together  in  it,  being  known  as  Aristobulus'  men 
and  Narcissus'  men.  And  so  probably  the  Christians 
among  them  are  the  brethren  to  whom  these  saluta- 
tions are  sent. 

Be  that  as  it  may,  I  think  that  if  we  look  at  the  two 
groups,  we  shall  get  out  of  them  some  lessons. 

I.  The  first  of  them  is  this :  the  penetrating  power  of 
Christian  truth.  Think  of  the  sort  of  man  that  the 
master  of  the  first  household  was,  if  the  identification 
suggested  be  accepted.    He  is  one  of  that  foul  Herodian 


vs.10,11]         TWO  HOUSEHOLDS  367 

brood,  in  all  of  whom  the  bad  Idumsean  blood  ran  cor- 
ruptly. The  grandson  of  the  old  Herod,  the  brother  of 
Agrippa  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  the  hanger-on  of 
the  Imperial  Court,  with  Roman  vices  veneered  on  his 
native  wickedness,  was  not  the  man  to  welcome  the 
entrance  of  a  revolutionary  ferment  into  his  house- 
hold ;  and  yet  through  his  barred  doors  had  crept 
quietly,  he  knowing  nothing  about  it,  that  great 
message  of  a  loving  God,  and  a  Master  whose  service 
was  freedom.  And  in  thousands  of  like  cases  the 
Gospel  was  finding  its  way  underground,  undreamed 
of  by  the  great  and  wise,  but  steadily  pressing  onwards, 
and  undermining  all  the  towering  grandeur  that  was 
so  contemptuous  of  it.  So  Christ's  truth  spread  at 
first ;  and  I  believe  that  is  the  way  it  always  spreads. 
Intellectual  revolutions  begin  at  the  top  and  filter 
down ;  religious  revolutions  begin  at  the  bottom  and 
rise ;  and  it  is  always  the  *  lower  orders '  that  are  laid 
hold  of  first.  '  Ye  see  your  calling,  brethren,  how  that 
not  many  wise  men  after  the  flesh,  not  many  mighty, 
not  many  noble  are  called,'  but  a  handful  of  slaves  in 
Aristobulus'  household,  with  this  living  truth  lodged  in 
their  hearts,  were  the  bearers  and  the  witnesses  and 
the  organs  of  the  power  which  was  going  to  shatter 
all  that  towered  above  it  and  despised  it.  And  so  it 
always  is. 

Do  not  let  us  be  ashamed  of  a  Gospel  that  has  not 
laid  hold  of  the  upper  and  the  educated  classes,  but  let 
us  feel  sure  of  this,  that  there  is  no  greater  sign  of 
defective  education  and  of  superficial  culture  and  of 
inborn  vulgarity  than  despising  the  day  of  small 
things,  and  estimating  truth  by  the  position  or  the 
intellectual  attainments  of  the  men  that  are  its  wit- 


368        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.xvi. 

nesses  and  its  lovers.  The  Gospel  penetrated  at  first, 
and  penetrates  still,  in  the  fashion  that  is  suggested 
here. 

II.  Secondly,  these  two  households  teach  us  very 
touchingly  and  beautifully  the  uniting  power  of  Chris- 
tian sympathy. 

A  considerable  proportion  of  the  first  of  these  two 
households  would  probably  be  Jews — if  Aristobulus 
were  indeed  Herod's  grandson.  The  probability  that 
he  was  is  increased  by  the  greeting  interposed  between 
those  to  the  two  households — '  Salute  Herodion.'  The 
name  suggests  some  connection  with  Herod,  and 
whether  we  suppose  the  designation  of  '  my  kinsman,' 
which  Paul  gives  him,  to  mean  •blood  relation'  or 
•fellow  countryman,'  Herodion,  at  all  events,  was  a 
Jew  by  birth.  As  to  the  other  members  of  these 
households,  Paul  may  have  met  some  of  them  in  his 
many  travels,  but  he  had  never  been  in  Rome,  and  his 
greetings  are  more  probably  sent  to  them  as  con- 
spicuous sections,  numerically,  of  the  Roman  Church, 
and  as  tokens  of  his  affection,  though  he  had  never 
seen  them.  The  possession  of  a  common  faith  has 
bridged  the  gulf  between  him  and  them.  Slaves  in 
those  days  were  outside  the  pale  of  human  sympathy, 
and  almost  outside  the  pale  of  human  rights.  And 
here  the  foremost  of  Christian  teachers,  who  was  a 
freeman  born,  separated  from  these  poor  people  by  a 
tremendous  chasm,  stretches  a  brother's  hand  across  it 
and  grasps  theirs.  The  Gospel  that  came  into  the 
world  to  rend  old  associations  and  to  split  up  society, 
and  to  make  a  deep  cleft  between  fathers  and  children 
and  husband  and  wife,  came  also  to  more  than  counter- 
balance its  dividing  effects  by  its  uniting  power.  And 
in  that  old  world  that  was  separated  into  classes  by 


vs.  10, 11]         TWO  HOUSEHOLDS  869 

gulfs  deeper  than  any  of  which  we  have  any  experi- 
ence, it,  and  it  alone,  threw  a  bridge  across  the  abysses 
and  bound  men  together.  Think  of  what  a  revolution  it 
must  have  been,  when  a  master  and  his  slave  could  sit 
down  together  at  the  table  of  the  Lord  and  look  each 
other  in  the  face  and  say  'Brother,'  and  for  the 
moment  forget  the  difference  of  bond  and  free.  Think 
of  what  a  revolution  it  must  have  been  when  Jew  and 
Gentile  could  sit  down  together  at  the  table  of  the 
Lord,  and  forget  circumcision  and  uncircumcision,  and 
feel  that  they  were  all  one  in  Jesus  Christ.  And  as  for 
the  third  of  the  great  clefts — that,  alas !  which  made 
so  much  of  the  tragedy  and  the  wickedness  of  ancient 
life — viz.  the  separation  between  the  sexes — think  of 
what  a  revolution  it  was  when  men  and  women,  in  all 
purity  of  the  new  bond  of  Christian  affection,  could  sit 
down  together  at  the  same  table,  and  feel  that  they 
were  brethren  and  sisters  in  Jesus  Christ. 

The  uniting  power  of  the  common  faith  and  the 
common  love  to  the  one  Lord  marked  Christianity  as 
altogether  supernatural  and  new,  unique  in  the  world's 
experience,  and  obviously  requiring  something  more 
than  a  human  force  to  produce  it.  Will  anybody  say 
that  the  Christianity  of  this  day  has  preserved  and  ex- 
hibits that  primitive  demonstration  of  its  superhuman 
source  ?  Is  there  anything  obviously  beyond  the  power 
of  earthly  motives  in  the  unselfish,  expansive  love  of 
modern  Christians  ?  Alas  !  alas !  to  ask  the  question 
is  to  answer  it,  and  everybody  knows  the  answer,  and 
nobody  sorrows  over  it.  Is  any  duty  more  pressingly 
laid  upon  Christian  churches  of  this  generation  than 
that,  forgetting  their  doctrinal  janglings  for  a  while, 
and  putting  away  their  sectarianisms  and  narrowness, 
they  should  show  the  world  that  their  faith  has  still 

2a 


370        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.  xvi. 

the  power  to  do  what  it  did  in  the  old  times,  bridge 
over  the  gulf  that  separates  class  from  class,  and  bring 
all  men  together  in  the  unity  of  the  faith  and  of  the  love 
of  Jesus  Christ?  Depend  upon  it,  unless  the  modern 
organisations  of  Christianity  which  call  themselves 
•  churches '  show  themselves,  in  the  next  twenty  years, 
a  great  deal  more  alive  to  the  necessity,  and  a  great 
deal  more  able  to  cope  with  the  problem,  of  uniting  the 
classes  of  our  modern  complex  civilisation,  the  term  of 
life  of  these  churches  is  comparatively  brief.  And  the 
form  of  Christianity  which  another  century  will  see 
will  be  one  which  reproduces  the  old  miracle  of  the 
early  days,  and  reaches  across  the  deepest  clefts  that 
separate  modern  society,  and  makes  all  one  in  Jesus 
Christ.  It  is  all  very  well  for  us  to  glorify  the  ancient 
love  of  the  early  Christians,  but  there  is  a  vast  deal 
of  false  sentimentality  about  our  eulogistic  talk  of  it. 
It  were  better  to  praise  it  less  and  imitate  it  more. 
Translate  it  into  present  life,  and  you  will  find  that 
to-day  it  requires  what  it  nineteen  hundred  years  ago 
was  recognised  as  manifesting,  the  presence  of  some- 
thing more  than  human  motive,  and  something  more 
than  man  discovers  of  truth.  The  cement  must  be 
divine  that  binds  men  thus  together. 

Again,  these  two  households  suggest  for  us  the  tran- 
quillising  power  of  Christian  resignation. 

They  were  mostly  slaves,  and  they  continued  to  be 
slaves  when  they  were  Christians.  Paul  recognised 
their  continuance  in  the  servile  position,  and  did  not 
say  a  word  to  them  to  induce  them  to  break  their 
bonds.  The  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians  treats  the 
whole  subject  of  slavery  in  a  very  remarkable  fashion. 
It  says  to  the  slave :  •  If  you  were  a  slave  when  you 
became  a  Christian,  stop  where  you  are.    If  you  have 


vs.  10, 11]         TWO  HOUSEHOLDS  871 

an  opportunity  of  being  free,  avail  yourself  of  it;  if 
you  have  not,  never  mind.'  And  then  it  adds  this 
great  principle :  '  He  that  is  called  in  the  Lord,  being  a 
slave,  is  Christ's  freeman.  Likewise  he  that  is  called, 
being  free,  is  Christ's  slave.'  The  Apostle  applies  the 
very  same  principle,  in  the  adjoining  verses,  to  the 
distinction  between  circumcision  and  uncircumcision. 
From  all  which  there  comes  just  the  same  lesson  that 
is  taught  us  by  these  two  households  of  slaves  left 
intact  by  Christianity — viz.  that  where  a  man  is  con- 
scious of  a  direct,  individual  relation  to  Jesus  Christ, 
that  makes  all  outward  circumstances  infinitely  in- 
significant. Let  us  get  up  to  the  height,  and  they  all 
become  very  small.  Of  course,  the  principles  of  Chris- 
tianity killed  slavery,  but  it  took  eighteen  hundred 
years  to  do  it.  Of  course,  there  is  no  blinking  the  fact 
that  slavery  was  an  essentially  immoral  and  unchristian 
institution.  But  it  is  one  thing  to  lay  down  principles 
and  leave  them  to  be  worked  in  and  then  to  be  worked 
out,  and  it  is  another  thing  to  go  blindly  charging 
at  existing  institutions  and  throwing  them  down  by 
violence,  before  men  have  grown  up  to  feel  that  they 
are  wicked.  And  so  the  New  Testament  takes  the 
wise  course,  and  leaves  the  foolish  one  to  foolish 
people.  It  makes  the  tree  good,  and  then  its  fruit 
will  be  good. 

But  the  main  point  that  I  want  to  insist  upon  is  this : 
what  was  good  for  these  slaves  in  Rome  is  good  for 
you  and  me.  Let  us  get  near  to  Jesus  Christ,  and  feel 
that  we  have  got  hold  of  His  hand  for  our  own  selves, 
and  we  shall  not  mind  very  much  about  the  possible 
varieties  of  human  condition.  Rich  or  poor,  happy  or 
sad,  surrounded  by  companions  or  treading  a  solitary 
path,  failures  or  successes  as  the  world  has  it,  strong 


372        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.xvi. 

or  broken  and  weak  and  wearied — all  these  varieties, 
important  as  they  are,  come  to  be  very  small  when  we 
can  say,  'We  are  the  Lord's.'  That  amulet  makes  all 
things  tolerable;  and  the  Christian  submission  which 
is  the  expression  of  our  love  to,  and  confidence  in,  His 
infinite  sweetness  and  unerring  goodness,  raises  us  to  a 
height  from  which  the  varieties  of  earthly  condition 
seem  to  blend  and  melt  into  one.  When  we  are  down 
amongst  the  low  hills,  it  seems  a  long  way  from  the 
foot  of  one  of  them  to  the  top  of  it ;  but  when  we  are 
on  the  top  they  all  melt  into  one  dead  level,  and  you 
cannot  tell  which  is  top  and  which  is  bottom.  And  so, 
if  we  only  can  rise  high  enough  up  the  hill,  the  possible 
diversities  of  our  condition  will  seem  to  be  very  small 
variations  in  the  level. 

III.  Lastly,  these  two  groups  suggest  to  us  the  con- 
quering power  of  Christian  faithfulness. 

The  household  of  Herod's  grandson  was  not  a  very 
likely  place  to  find  Christian  people  in,  was  it  ?  Such 
flowers  do  not  often  grow,  or  at  least  do  not  easily  grow, 
on  such  dunghills.  And  in  both  these  cases  it  was  only 
a  handful  of  the  people,  a  portion  of  each  household, 
that  was  Christian.  So  they  had  beside  them,  closely 
identified  with  them — working,  perhaps,  at  the  same 
tasks,  I  might  almost  say,  chained  with  the  same  chains 
— men  who  had  no  share  in  their  faith  or  in  their  love. 
It  would  not  be  easy  to  pray  and  love  and  trust  God  and 
do  His  will,  and  keep  clear  of  complicity  with  idolatry 
and  immorality  and  sin,  in  such  a  pigsty  as  that ;  would 
it  ?  But  these  men  did  it.  And  nobody  need  ever  say, 
•  I  am  in  such  circumstances  that  I  cannot  live  a  Chris- 
tian life.'  There  are  no  such  circumstances,  at  least 
none  of  God's  appointing.  There  are  often  such  that 
we  bring  upon  ourselves,  and  then  the  best  thing  is  to 


vg.  10, 11]         TWO  HOUSEHOLDS  873 

get  out  of  them  as  soon  as  we  can.  But  as  far  as  He  is 
concerned,  He  never  puts  anybody  anywhere  where  he 
cannot  live  a  holy  life. 

There  were  no  difficulties  too  great  for  these  men  to 
overcome ;  there  are  no  difficulties  too  great  for  us  to 
overcome.  And  wherever  you  and  I  may  be,  we  cannot 
be  in  any  place  where  it  is  so  hard  to  live  a  consistent 
life  as  these  people  were.  Young  men  in  warehouses, 
people  in  business  here  in  Manchester,  some  of  us  with 
unfortunate  domestic  or  relative  associations,  and  so 
on — we  may  all  feel  as  if  it  would  be  so  much  easier 
for  us  if  this,  that,  and  the  other  thing  were  changed. 
No,  it  would  not  be  any  easier ;  and  perhaps  the  harder 
the  easier,  because  the  more  obviously  the  atmosphere 
is  poisonous,  the  more  we  shall  put  some  cloth  over  our 
mouths  to  prevent  it  from  getting  into  our  lungs. 
The  dangerous  place  is  the  place  where  the  vapours 
that  poison  are  scentless  as  well  as  invisible.  But 
whatever  be  the  difficulties,  there  is  strength  waiting 
for  us,  and  we  may  all  win  the  praise  which  the 
Apostle  gives  to  another  of  these  Roman  brethren, 
whom  he  salutes  as  *  Apelles,  approved  in  Christ ' — a 
man  that  had  been  '  tried '  and  had  stood  his  trial.  So 
in  our  various  spheres  of  difficulty  and  of  temptation 
we  may  feel  that  the  greeting  from  heaven,  like  Paul's 
message  to  the  slaves  in  Rome,  comes  to  us  with  good 
cheer,  and  that  the  Master  Himself  sees  us,  sympathises 
with  us,  salutes  us,  and  stretches  out  His  hand  to  help 
and  to  keep  us. 


TRYPHENA  AND  TRYPHOSA 

'  Salnte  Tryphena  and  Tryphosa,  who  labour  in  the  Lord.'— Romans  zvi.  12. 

The  number  of  salutations  to  members  of  the  Roman 
Church  is  remarkable  when  we  take  into  account  that 
Paul  had  never  visited  it.  The  capital  drew  all  sorts  of 
people  to  it,  and  probably  there  had  been  personal  inter- 
course between  most  of  the  persons  here  mentioned 
and  the  Apostle  in  some  part  of  his  wandering  life. 
He  not  only  displays  his  intimate  knowledge  of  the 
persons  saluted,  but  his  beautiful  delicacy  and  in- 
genuity in  the  varying  epithets  applied  to  them 
shows  how  in  his  great  heart  and  tenacious  memory 
individuals  had  a  place.  These  shadowy  saints  live  for 
ever  by  Paul's  brief  characterisation  of  them,  and  stand 
out  to  us  almost  as  clearly  and  as  sharply  distinguished 
as  they  did  to  him. 

These  two,  Tryphena  and  Tryphosa,  were  probably 
sisters.  That  is  rendered  likely  by  their  being 
coupled  together  here,  as  well  as  by  the  similarity  of 
their  names.  These  names  mean  luxurious,  or  delicate, 
and  no  doubt  expressed  the  ideal  for  their  daughters 
which  the  parents  had  had,  and  possibly  indicate  the 
kind  of  life  from  which  these  two  women  had  come. 
We  can  scarcely  fail  to  note  the  contrast  between  the 
meaning  of  their  names  and  the  Christian  lives  they 
had  lived.  Two  dainty  women,  probably  belonging  to 
a  class  in  which  a  delicate  withdrawal  from  effort  and 
toil  was  thought  to  be  the  woman's  distinctive  mark, 
had  fled  from  luxury,  which  often  tended  to  be  volup- 
tuous, and  was  always  self-indulgent,  and  had  chosen 
the  better  part  of  'labour  in  the  Lord.'  They  had 
become  untrue  to  their  names,  because  they  must  be 
true  to  their  Master  and  themselves.     We  may  well 

S7A 


V.  12]  TRYPHENA  AND  TRYPHOSA   375 

take  the  lesson  that  lies  here,  and  is  eminently  needful 
to-day  amidst  the  senseless,  and  often  sinful,  tide  of 
luxury  which  runs  so  strongly  as  to  threaten  the  great 
and  eternal  Christian  principle  of  self-denial. 

The  first  thing  that  strikes  us  in  looking  at  these 
salutations  is  the  illustration  which  it  gives  of  the 
uniting  power  of  a  common  faith.  Tryphena  and 
Tryphosa  were  probably  Roman  ladies  of  some  social 
standing,  and  their  names  may  indicate  that  they  at 
least  inherited  a  tendency  to  exclusiveness ;  yet  here 
they  occur  immediately  after  the  household  of  Narcissus 
and  in  close  connection  with  that  of  Aristobulus,  both 
of  which  are  groups  of  slaves.  Aristobulus  was  a 
grandson  of  Herod  the  Great,  and  Narcissus  was  a  well- 
known  freedman,  whose  slaves  at  his  death  would 
probably  become  the  property  of  the  Emperor.  Other 
common  slave  names  are  those  of  Ampliatus  and 
Urbanus  ;  and  here  in  these  lists  they  stand  side  by 
side  with  persons  of  some  distinction  in  the  Roman 
world,  and  with  men  and  women  of  widely  differing 
nationalities.  The  Church  of  Rome  would  have  seemed 
to  any  non-Christian  observer  a  motley  crowd  in  which 
racial  distinctions,  sex,  and  social  conditions  had  all 
been  swept  away  by  the  rising  tide  of  a  common 
fanaticism.  In  it  was  exemplified  in  actual  operation 
Paul's  great  principle  that  in  Christ  Jesus  '  there  is 
neither  Jew  nor  Greek,  male  nor  female,  bond  nor 
free,  but  in  Him  all  are  one.'  Roman  society  in  that 
day,  as  Juvenal  shows  us,  was  familiar  with  the  level- 
ling and  uniting  power  of  common  vice  and  immorality, 
and  the  few  sternly  patriotic  Romans  who  were  left 
lamented  that  *  the  Orontes  flowed  into  the  Tiber ' ;  but 
Buch  common  wallowing  in  filth  led  to  no  real  unity, 
whereas,  in  the  obscure  corner  of  the  great  city  where 


376        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.xvi. 

there  were  members  of  the  infant  Church  gathered 
together,  there  was  the  beginning  of  a  common  life  in 
the  one  Lord  which  lifted  each  participant  of  it  out  of 
the  dreary  solitude  of  individuality,  and  imparted  to 
each  heart  the  tingling  consciousness  of  oneness  with 
all  who  held  the  one  faith  in  the  one  Lord  and  had 
received  the  one  baptism  in  the  one  Name.  That  fair 
dawn  has  been  shadowed  by  many  clouds,  and  the 
churches  of  to-day,  however  they  may  have  developed 
doctrine,  may  look  back  with  reproach  and  shame  to 
the  example  of  Rome,  where  Tryphena  and  Tryphosa, 
with  all  their  inherited,  fastidious  delicacy,  recognised 
in  the  household  of  Aristobulus  and  the  household 
of  Narcissus  •  brethren  in  the  Lord,'  and  were  as  glad 
to  welcome  Jews,  Asiatics,  Persians,  and  Greeks,  as 
Romans  of  the  bluest  blood,  into  the  family  of  Christ. 
The  Romish  Church  of  our  day  has  lost  its  early  grace 
of  welcoming  all  who  love  the  one  Lord  into  its  fellow- 
ship; and  we  of  the  Protestant  churches  have  been 
but  too  swift  to  learn  the  bad  lesson  of  forbidding  all 
who  follow  not  with  us. 

Another  thought  which  may  be  suggested  by  Try- 
phena and  Tryphosa  is  the  blessed  hallowing  of  natural 
family  relations  by  common  faith.  They  were  probably 
sisters,  or,  at  all  events,  as  their  names  indicate,  near 
relatives,  and  to  them  that  faith  must  have  been  doubly 
precious  because  they  shared  it  with  each  other.  None 
of  the  trials  to  which  the  early  Christians  were  exposed 
was  more  severe  than  the  necessity  which  their  Christi- 
anity so  often  imposed  upon  them  of  breaking  the 
sacred  family  ties.  It  saddened  even  Christ's  heart 
to  think  that  He  had  come  to  rend  families  in  sunder, 
and  to  make  *a  man's  foes  them  of  his  own  household'; 
and  we  can  little  imagine  how  bitter  the  pang  m.ust 


V.  12]  TRYPHENA  AND  TRYPHOSA   377 

have  been  when  family  love  had  to  be  cast  aside  at  the 
bidding  of  allegiance  to  Him. 

But  though  the  stress  of  that  separation  between 
those  most  nearly  related  in  blood  by  reason  of 
unshared  faith  is  alleviated  in  this  day,  it  still  remains ; 
and  that  is  but  a  feeble  Christian  life  which  does  not  feel 
that  it  is  drawing  a  heart  from  closest  human  embraces 
and  constituting  a  barrier  between  it  and  the  dearest 
of  earth.  There  is  still  need  in  these  days  of  relaxed 
Christian  sentiment  for  the  stern  austerity  of  the  law, 
'  He  that  loveth  father  or  mother  more  than  Me  is  not 
worthy  of  Me';  and  there  are  many  Christian  souls 
who  would  be  infinitely  stronger  and  more  mature,  if 
they  did  not  yield  to  the  seductions  of  family  affections 
which  are  not  rooted  in  Jesus  Christ.  But  still,  though 
our  faith  ought  to  be  far  more  than  it  often  is,  the 
determining  element  in  our  affections  and  associations, 
its  noblest  work  is  not  to  separate  but  to  unite ;  and 
whilst  it  often  must  divide,  it  is  meant  to  draw  more 
closely  together  hearts  that  are  already  knit  by  earthly 
love.  Its  legitimate  effect  is  to  make  all  earthly  sweet- 
nesses sweeter,  all  holy  bonds  more  holy  and  more 
binding,  to  infuse  a  new  constraint  and  preciousness 
into  all  earthly  relationships,  to  make  brothers  tenfold 
more  brotherly  and  sisters  more  sisterly.  The  heart,  in 
which  the  deepest  devotion  is  yielded  to  Jesus  Christ, 
has  its  capacity  for  devotion  infinitely  increased,  and 
they  who,  looking  into  each  other's  faces,  see  reflected 
there  something  of  the  Lord  whom  they  both  love,  love 
each  other  all  the  more  because  they  love  Him  most, 
and  in  their  love  to  Him,  and  His  to  them,  have  found  a 
new  measure  for  all  their  affection.  They  who,  looking 
on  their  dear  ones,  can  'trust  they  live  in  God,'  will  there 
find  them  *  worthier  to  be  loved,'  and  will  there  find  a 


378        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.xvi. 

new  power  of  loving  them.  Tryphena  and  Tryphosa 
were  more  sisterly  than  ever  when  they  clung  to  their 
Elder  Brother.  'There  is  no  man  that  hath  left 
brethren,  or  sisters,  or  mother,  or  father,  for  My  sake, 
but  he  shall  receive  a  hundredfold  more  in  this  time, 
brethren,  and  sisters,  and  mothers,  and  in  the  world  to 
come  eternal  life/ 

The  contrast  between  the  names  of  these  two  Roman 
ladies  and  the  characterisation  of  their  '  labour  in  the 
Lord'  may  suggest  to  us  the  most  formidable  foe  of 
Christian  earnestness.  Their  names,  as  we  have  already 
noticed,  point  to  a  state  of  society  in  which  the  parents' 
ideal  for  their  daughters  was  dainty  luxuriousness  and  a 
withdrawal  from  the  rough  and  tumble  of  common  life ; 
but  these  two  women,  magnetised  by  the  love  of  Jesus, 
had  turned  their  backs  on  the  parental  ideal,  and  had 
cast  themselves  earnestly  into  a  life  of  toil.  That  ideal 
was  never  more  formidably  antagonistic  to  the  vigour 
of  Christian  life  than  it  is  to-day.  Rome,  in  Paul's  time, 
was  not  more  completely  honeycombed  with  worldliness 
than  England  is  to-day  ;  and  the  English  churches  are 
not  far  behind  the  English  '  world '  in  their  paralysing 
love  of  luxury  and  self-indulgence.  In  all  ages,  earnest 
Christians  have  had  to  take  up  the  same  vehement 
remonstrance  against  the  tendency  of  the  average 
Christian  to  let  his  religious  life  be  weakened  by  the 
love  of  the  world  and  the  things  of  the  world.  The 
protests  against  growing  luxury  have  been  a  common- 
place in  all  ages  of  the  Church ;  but,  surely,  there  has 
never  been  a  time  when  it  has  reached  a  more  senseless, 
sinful,  and  destroying  height  than  in  our  day.  The 
rapid  growth  of  wealth,  with  no  capacity  of  using  it 
nobly,  which  modern  commerce  has  brought,  has 
immensely  influenced  all  our  churches  for  evil.    It  is  so 


V.12]     TRYPHENA  AND  TRYPHOSA      379 

hard  for  us,  aggregated  in  great  cities,  to  live  our  own 
lives,  and  the  example  of  our  class  has  such  immense 
power  over  us  that  it  is  very  hard  to  pursue  the  path 
of  'plain  living  and  high  thinking'  in  communities, 
all  classes  of  which  are  more  and  more  yielding  to 
the  temptation  to  ostentation,  so-called  comfort,  and 
extravagant  expenditure ;  and  that  this  is  a  danger — 
we  are  tempted  to  say  the  danger — to  the  purity, 
loftiness,  and  vigour  of  religious  life  among  us,  he  must 
be  blind  who  cannot  see,  and  he  must  be  strangely 
ignorant  of  his  own  life  who  cannot  feel  that  it  is  the 
danger  for  him.  I  believe  that  for  one  professing 
Christian  whose  earnestness  is  lost  by  reason  of  intel- 
lectual doubts,  or  by  some  grave  sin,  there  are  a 
hundred  from  whom  it  simply  oozes  away  unnoticed, 
like  wind  out  of  a  bladder,  so  that  what  was  once  round 
and  full  becomes  limp  and  flaccid.  If  Demas  begins 
with  loving  the  present  world,  it  will  not  be  long  before 
he  finds  a  reason  for  departing  from  Paul. 

We  may  take  these  two  sisters,  finally,  as  pointing 
for  us  the  true  victory  over  this  formidable  enemy. 
They  had  turned  resolutely  away  from  the  heathen 
ideal  enshrined  in  their  names  to  a  life  of  real  hard  toil, 
as  is  distinctly  implied  by  the  word  used  by  the  Apostle. 
What  that  toil  consisted  in  we  do  not  know,  and  need 
not  inquire ;  but  the  main  point  to  be  noted  is  that  their 
'labour'  was  'in  the  Lord.'  That  union  with  Christ 
makes  labour  for  Him  a  necessity,  and  makes  it 
possible.  '  The  labour  we  delight  in  physics  pain ' ; 
and  if  we  are  in  Him,  we  shall  not  only  '  live  in  Him,' 
but  all  our  work  begun,  continued,  and  ended  in  Him, 
will  in  Him  and  by  Him  be  accepted.  There  is  no 
victorious  antagonist  of  worldly  ease  and  self-indulgence 
comparable  to  the  living  consciousness  of  union  with 


380        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.xvi. 

Jesus  and  His  life  in  us.  To  dwell  in  the  swamps  at  the 
bottom  of  the  mountain  is  to  live  in  a  region  where 
effort  is  impossible  and  malaria  weakens  vitality;  to 
climb  the  heights  brings  bracing  to  the  limbs  and  a 
purer  air  into  the  expanding  lungs,  and  makes  work 
delightsome  that  would  have  been  labour  down  below. 
If  we  are  *in  the  Lord,'  He  is  our  atmosphere,  and 
we  can  draw  from  Him  full  draughts  of  a  noble  life 
in  which  we  shall  not  need  the  stimulus  of  self-interest 
or  worldly  success  to  use  it  to  the  utmost  in  acts  of 
service  to  Him.  They  who  live  in  the  Lord  will  labour 
in  the  Lord,  and  they  who  labour  in  the  Lord  will  rest 
in  the  Lord. 

PERSIS 

'  Salute  the  beloved  Persia,  who  laboured  much  in  the  Lord.'— Romans  xvi.  12. 

There  are  a  great  number  of  otherwise  unknown 
Christians  who  pass  for  a  moment  before  our  view 
in  this  chapter.  Their  characterisations  are  like  the 
slight  outlines  in  the  background  of  some  great  artist's 
canvas :  a  touch  of  the  brush  is  all  that  is  spared  for 
each,  and  yet,  if  we  like  to  look  sympathetically,  they 
live  before  us.  Now,  this  good  woman,  about  whom 
we  never  hear  again,  and  for  whom  these  few  words 
are  all  her  epitaph — was  apparently,  judging  by  her 
name,  of  Persian  descent,  and  possibly  had  been 
brought  to  Rome  as  a  slave.  At  all  events,  finding 
herself  there,  she  had  somehow  or  other  become  con- 
nected with  the  Church  in  that  city,  and  had  there 
distinguished  herself  by  continuous  and  faithful 
Christian  toil  which  had  won  the  affection  of  the 
Apostle,  though  he  had  never  seen  her,  and  knew 
no  more  about  her.    That  is  all.    She  comes  into  the 


V.12J  PERSIS  881 

foreground  for  a  moment,  and  then  she  vanishes. 
What  does  she  say  to  us  ? 

First  of  all,  like  the  others  named  by  Paul,  she  helps  us 
to  understand,  by  her  living  example,  that  wonderful, 
new,  uniting  process  that  was  carried  on  by  means  of 
Christianity.  The  simple  fact  of  a  Persian  woman 
getting  a  loving  message  from  a  Jew,  the  woman  being 
in  Rome  and  the  Jew  in  Corinth,  and  the  message 
being  written  in  Greek,  brings  before  us  a  whole  group 
of  nationalities  all  fused  together.  They  had  been 
hammered  together,  or,  if  you  like  it  better,  chained 
together,  by  Roman  power,  but  they  were  melted  to- 
gether by  Christ's  Gospel.  This  Eastern  woman  and 
this  Jewish  man,  and  the  many  others  whose  names  and 
different  nationalities  pass  in  a  flash  before  us  in  this 
chapter,  were  all  brought  together  in  Jesus  Christ. 

If  we  run  our  eye  over  these  salutations,  what 
strikes  one,  even  at  the  first  sight,  is  the  very  small 
number  of  Jewish  names;  only  one  certain,  and 
another  doubtful.  Four  or  five  names  are  Latin,  and 
then  all  the  rest  are  Greek,  but  this  woman  seemingly 
came  from  further  east  than  any  of  them.  There 
they  all  were,  forgetting  the  hostile  nationalities  to 
which  they  belonged,  because  they  had  found  One 
who  had  brought  them  into  one  great  community. 
We  talk  about  the  uniting  influence  of  Christianity, 
but  when  we  see  the  process  going  on  before  us,  in  a 
case  like  this,  we  begin  to  understand  it  better. 

But  another  point  may  be  noticed  in  regard  to  this 
uniting  process — how  it  brought  into  action  the  purest 
and  truest  love  as  a  bond  that  linked  men.  There 
are  four  or  five  of  the  people  commended  in  this 
chapter  of  whom  the  Apostle  has  nothing  to  say  but 
that  they  are  beloved.    This  is  the  only  woman  to 


382        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.xvi. 

whom  he  applies  that  term.  And  notice  his  instinctive 
delicacy :  when  he  is  speaking  of  men  he  says,  '  My 
beloved';  when  he  is  greeting  Persis  he  says,  Hhe 
beloved,'  that  there  may  be  no  misunderstanding 
about  the  *my' — 'the  beloved  Persis  which  laboured 
much  in  the  Lord ' — indicating,  by  one  delicate  touch, 
the  loftiness,  the  purity,  and  truly  Christian  character 
of  the  bond  that  held  them  together.  And  that  is  no 
true  Church,  where  anything  but  that  is  the  bond — 
the  love  that  knits  us  to  one  another,  because  we  be- 
lieve that  each  is  knit  to  the  dear  Lord  and  fountain 
of  all  love. 

What  more  does  this  good  woman  say  to  us  ?  She  is 
an  example  living  and  breathing  there  before  us,  of 
what  a  woman  may  be  in  God's  Church.  Paul  had 
never  been  in  Rome;  no  Apostle,  so  far  as  we  know, 
had  had  anything  to  do  with  the  founding  of  the 
Church.  The  most  important  Church  in  the  Roman 
Empire,  and  the  Church  which  afterwards  became  the 
curse  of  Christendom,  was  founded  by  some  anonymous 
Christians,  with  no  commission,  with  no  supervision, 
with  no  officials  amongst  them,  but  who  just  had  the 
grace  of  God  in  their  hearts,  and  found  themselves  in 
Rome,  and  could  not  help  speaking  about  Jesus  Christ. 
God  helped  them,  and  a  little  Church  sprang  into 
being.  And  the  great  abundance  of  salutations  here, 
and  the  honourable  titles  which  the  Apostle  gives  to 
the  Christians  of  whom  he  speaks,  and  many  of  whom 
he  signalises  as  having  done  great  service,  are  a  kind 
of  certificate  on  his  part  to  the  vigorous  life  which, 
without  any  apostolic  supervision  or  official  direction, 
had  developed  itself  there  in  that  Church. 

Now,  it  is  to  be  noticed  that  this  striking  form  of 
eulogium  which  is  attached  to  our  Persis  she  shares  in 


V.  12]  PERSIS  883 

common  with  others  in  the  group.  And  it  is  to  be 
further  noticed  that  all  those  who  are,  as  it  were, 
decorated  with  this  medal — on  whom  Paul  bestows 
this  honour  of  saying  that  they  had  'laboured,'  or 
•laboured  much  in  the  Lord,'  are  women  that  stand 
alone  in  the  list.  There  are  several  other  women  in 
it,  but  they  are  all  coupled  with  men — husbands  or 
brothers,  or  some  kind  of  relative.  But  there  are 
three  sets  of  women,  I  do  not  say  single  women,  but 
three  sets  of  women,  standing  singly  in  the  list,  and  it 
is  about  them,  and  them  only,  that  Paul  says  they 
'laboured,'  or  'laboured  much.'  There  is  a  Mary  who 
stands  alone,  and  she  'bestowed  much  labour  on'  Paul 
and  others.  Then  there  are,  in  the  same  verse  as  my 
text,  two  sisters,  Tryphena  and  Tryphosa,  whose  names 
mean  '  the  luxurious.'  And  the  Apostle  seems  to  think, 
as  he  writes  the  two  names  that  spoke  of  self- 
indulgence:  'Perhaps  these  rightly  described  these 
two  women  once,  but  they  do  not  now.  In  the  bad 
old  days,  before  they  were  Christians,  they  may  have 
been  rightly  named  luxurious-living.  But  here  is  their 
name  now,  the  luxurious  is  turned  into  the  self-sacrific- 
ing worker,  and  the  two  sisters  "labour  in  the  Lord.'" 
Then  comes  our  friend  Persis,  who  also  stands  alone ; 
and  she  shares  in  the  honour  that  only  these  other 
two  companies  of  women  share  with  her.  She 
•/aboured  much  in  the  Lord.'  In  that  little  com- 
munity, without  any  direction  from  Apostles  and 
authorised  teachers,  the  brethren  and  sisters  had 
every  one  found  their  tasks ;  and  these  solitary  women, 
with  nobody  to  say  to  them,  '  Go  and  do  this  or  that,' 
had  found  out  for  ttiemseh'^es,  or  rather  had  been 
taught  by  the  Spirit  of  Jesus,  what  they  had  to  do, 
and  they  worked  at  it  with  a  will.    There  are  many 


384        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.  xvi. 

things  that  Christian  women  can  do  a  great  deal  better 
than  men,  and  we  are  not  to  forget  that  this  modern 
talk  about  the  emancipation  of  women  has  its  roots 
here  in  the  New  Testament.  We  are  not  to  forget 
either  that  prerogative  means  obligation,  and  that 
the  elevation  of  woman  means  the  laying  upon  her  of 
solemn  duties  to  perform.  I  wonder  how  many  of  the 
women  members  of  our  Churches  and  congregations 
deserve  such  a  designation  as  that  ?  We  hear  a  great 
deal  about  'women's  rights'  nowadays.  I  wish  some 
of  my  friends  would  lay  a  little  more  to  heart  than 
they  do,  '  women's  duties.' 

And  now,  lastly,  the  final  lesson  that  I  draw  from 
this  eulogium  of  an  otherwise  altogether  unknown 
woman  is  that  she  is  a  model  of  Christian  service. 

First,  in  regard  to  its  measure.  She  '  laboured  much 
in  the  Lord.'  Now,  both  these  two  words,  'laboured' 
and  '  much,'  are  extremely  emphatic.  The  word  rightly 
translated  '  laboured '  will  appear  in  its  full  force  if  I 
recall  to  you  a  couple  of  other  places  in  which  it  is 
employed  in  the  New  Testament.  You  remember  that 
touching  incident  about  our  Lord  when,  being  '  wearied 
with  His  journey,  He  sat  thus  on  the  well.'  •  Wearied ' 
is  the  same  word  as  is  here  used.  Then,  you  remember 
how  the  Apostle,  after  he  had  been  hauling  empty  nets 
all  night  in  the  little,  wet,  dirty  fishing-boat,  said, 
perhaps  with  a  yawn,  *  Master,  we  have  toiled  all  the 
night  and  caught  nothing.'  He  uses  the  same  word  as 
is  employed  here.  Such  is  the  sort  of  work  that  these 
women  had  done — work  carried  to  the  point  of  ex- 
haustion, work  up  to  the  very  edge  of  their  powers, 
work  unsparing  and  continuous,  and  not  done  once  in 
some  flash  of  evanescent  enthusiasm,  but  all  through 
a  dreary  night,  in  spite  of  apparent  failures. 


V.12]  PERSIS  885 

There  is  the  measure  of  service.  Many  of  us  seem  to 
think  that  if  we  say  '  I  am  tired,'  that  is  a  reason  for 
not  doing  anything.  Sometimes  it  is,  no  doubt;  and 
no  man  has  a  right  so  to  labour  as  to  impair  his 
capacity  for  future  labour,  but  subject  to  that  con- 
dition I  do  not  know  that  the  plea  of  fatigue  is  a 
sufficient  reason  for  idleness.  And  I  am  quite  sure 
that  the  true  example  for  us  is  the  example  of  Him 
who,  when  He  was  most  wearied,  sitting  on  the  well, 
was  so  invigorated  and  refreshed  by  the  opportunity 
of  winning  another  soul  that,  when  His  disciples  came 
back  to  Him,  they  looked  at  His  fresh  strength  with 
astonishment,  and  said  to  themselves,  'Has  any  man 
brought  Him  anything  to  eat  ? '  Ay,  what  He  had  to 
eat  was  work  that  He  finished  for  the  Father,  and 
some  of  us  know  that  the  truest  refreshment  in  toil 
is  a  change  of  toil.  It  is  almost  as  good  to  shift  the 
load  on  to  the  other  shoulder,  or  to  take  a  stick  into 
the  other  hand,  as  it  is  to  put  away  the  load  altogether. 
Oh,  the  careful  limits  which  Christian  people  nowa- 
days set  to  their  work  for  Jesus !  They  are  not  afraid 
of  being  tired  in  their  pursuit  of  business  or  pleasure, 
but  in  regard  to  Christ's  work  they  will  let  anything 
go  to  wrack  and  ruin  rather  than  that  they  should 
turn  a  hair,  by  persevering  efforts  to  prevent  it. 
Work  to  the  limit  of  power  if  you  live  in  the  light  of 
blessedness. 

She  *  laboured  much  in  the  Lord,'  or,  as  Jesus  Christ 
said  about  the  other  woman  who  was  blamed  by  the 
people  that  did  not  love  enough  to  understand  the 
blessedness  of  self-sacrifice,  'she  had  done  what  she 
could.'  It  was  an  apology  for  the  form  of  Mary's 
service,  but  it  was  a  stringent  demand  as  to  its  amount. 
•What  she  could' — not  half  of  what  she  could;  not 

2b 


386        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.xvi. 

what  she  conveniently  could.    That  is  the  measure  of 
acceptable  service. 

Then,  still  further,  may  we  not  learn  from  Persis 
the  spring  of  all  true  Christian  work  ?  She  '  laboured 
much  in  the  Lord,'  because  she  was  'in  Him,'  and  in 
union  with  Him  there  came  to  her  power  and  desire 
to  do  things  which,  without  that  close  fellowship,  she 
neither  would  have  desired  nor  been  able  to  do.  It 
is  vain  to  try  to  whip  up  Christian  people  to  forms  of 
service  by  appealing  to  lower  motives.  There  is  only 
one  motive  that  will  last,  and  bring  out  from  us  all 
that  is  in  us  to  do,  and  that  is  the  appeal  to  our  sense 
of  union  and  communion  with  Jesus  Christ,  and  the 
exhortation  to  live  in  Him,  and  then  we  shall  work  in 
Him.  If  you  link  the  spindles  in  your  mill,  or  the 
looms  in  your  weaving-shed,  with  the  engine,  they 
will  go.  It  is  of  no  use  to  try  to  turn  them  by  hand. 
You  will  only  spoil  the  machinery,  and  it  will  be  poor 
work  that  you  will  get  off  them. 

So,  dear  brethren,  be  '  in  the  Lord.'  That  is  the  secret 
of  service,  and  the  closer  we  come  to  Him,  and  the 
more  continuously,  moment  by  moment,  we  realise 
our  individual  dependence  upon  Him,  and  our  union 
with  Him,  the  more  will  our  lives  effloresce  and 
blossom  into  all  manner  of  excellence  and  joyful 
service,  and  nothing  else  that  Christian  people  are 
whipped  up  to  do,  from  lower  and  more  vulgar  motives 
than  that,  will.  It  may  be  of  a  certain  kind  of  inferior 
value,  but  it  is  far  beneath  the  highest  beauty  of 
Christian  service,  nor  will  its  issues  reach  the  loftiest 
point  of  usefulness  to  which  even  our  poor  service 
may  attain. 

Persis  seems  to  me  to  suggest,  too,  the  safeguard  of 
work.     A.h,  if  she  had  not '  laboured  in  the  Lord,'  and 


V.  12]  PERSIS  387 

been  'in  the  Lord'  whilst  she  was  labouring,  she 
would  very  soon  have  stopped  work.  Our  Christian 
work,  however  pure  its  motive  when  we  begin  it,  has 
in  itself  the  tendency  to  become  mechanical,  and  to 
be  done  from  lower  motives  than  those  from  which  it 
was  begun.  That  is  true  about  a  man  in  my  position. 
It  is  true  about  all  of  us,  in  our  several  ways  of  trying 
to  serve  our  dear  Lord  and  Master.  Unless  we  make 
a  conscience  of  continually  renewing  our  communion 
with  Him,  and  getting  our  feet  once  more  firmly  upon 
the  rock,  we  shall  certainly  in  our  Christian  work, 
having  begun  in  the  spirit,  continue  in  the  flesh,  and 
before  we  know  where  we  are,  we  shall  be  doing  work 
from  habit,  because  we  did  it  yesterday  at  this  hour, 
because  people  expect  it  of  us,  because  A,  B,  or  C 
does  it,  or  for  a  hundred  other  reasons,  all  of  which 
are  but  too  familiar  to  us  by  experience.  They  are 
sure  to  slip  in ;  they  change  the  whole  character  of  the 
work,  and  they  harm  the  workers.  The  only  way 
by  which  we  can  keep  the  garland  fresh  is  by  con- 
tinually dipping  it  in  the  fountain.  The  only  way  by 
which  we  can  keep  our  Christian  work  pure,  useful, 
worthy  of  the  Master,  is  by  seeing  to  it  that  our 
work  itself  does  not  draw  us  away  from  our  fellowship 
with  Him.  And  the  more  we  have  to  do,  the  more 
needful  is  it  that  we  should  listen  to  Christ's  voice 
when  He  says  to  us, '  Come  ye  yourselves  apart  with 
Me  into  a  solitary  place,  and  there  renew  your  com- 
munion with  Me.' 

The  last  lesson  about  our  work  which  I  draw  from 
Persis  is  the  unexpected  immortality  of  true  Christian 
service.  How  Persis  would  have  opened  her  eyes  if 
anybody  had  told  her  that  nearly  1900  years  after 
she  lived,  people  in  a  far-away  barbarous  island  would 


388        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.  xvi. 

be  sitting  thinking  about  her,  as  you  and  I  are  doing 
now !  How  astonished  she  would  have  been  if  it  had 
been  said  to  her,  'Now,  Persis,  wheresoever  in  the 
whole  world  the  Gospel  is  preached,  your  name  and 
your  work  and  your  epitaph  will  go  with  it,  and  as 
long  as  men  know  about  Jesus  Christ,  your  and  their 
Master,  they  will  know  about  you.  His  humble  servant.' 
Well,  we  shall  not  have  our  names  in  that  fashion  in 
men's  memories,  but  Jesus  will  have  your  name  and 
mine,  if  we  do  His  work  as  this  woman  did  it,  in  His 
memory.  *  I  will  never  forget  any  of  their  works.' 
And  if  we — self-forgetful  to  the  limit  of  our  power, 
and  as  the  joyful  result  of  our  personal  union  with 
that  Saviour  who  has  done  everything  for  us — try  to 
live  for  His  praise  and  glory  in  any  fashion,  then  be 
sure  of  this,  that  our  poor  deeds  are  as  immortal  as 
Him  for  whom  they  are  done,  and  that  we  may  take 
to  ourselves  the  great  word  which  He  has  spoken, 
when  He  has  declared  that  at  the  last  He  will  confess 
His  confessors'  names  before  the  angels  in  heaven. 
Blessed  are  the  living  that '  live  in  the  Lord ' ;  blessed 
are  the  workers  that  work  'in  the  Lord,'  for  when 
they  come  to  be  the  dead  that  '  die  in  the  Lord '  and 
rest  from  their  labours,  their  works  shall  follow 
them. 


A  CRUSHED  SNAKE 

'The  God  of  peace  shall  bruise  Satan  under  your  feet  shortly.'— Romans  xvi.  SO. 

There  are  three  other  Scriptural  sayings  which  may 
have  been  floating  in  the  Apostle's  mind  when  he 
penned  this  triumphant  assurance.    '  Thou  shalt  bruise 


V.20]  A  CRUSHED  SNAKE  389 

his  head ' ;  the  great  first  Evangel — we  are  to  be 
endowed  with  Christ's  power ;  '  The  lion  and  the  adder 
thou  shalt  trample  under  foot ' — all  the  strength  that 
was  given  to  ancient  saints  is  ours ;  '  Behold !  I  give 
you  power  to  tread  on  serpents  and  scorpions,  and 
over  all  the  power  of  the  enemy ' — the  charter  of  the 
seventy  is  the  perennial  gift  to  the  Church.  Echoing 
all  these  great  words,  Paul  promises  the  Roman 
Christians  that  '  the  God  of  peace  shall  bruise  Satan 
under  your  feet  shortly.'  Now,  when  any  special 
characteristic  is  thus  ascribed  to  God,  as  when  He  is 
called  'the  God  of  patience'  or  'the  God  of  hope,'  in 
the  preceding  chapter,  the  characteristic  selected  has 
some  bearing  on  the  prayer  or  promise  following.  For 
example,  this  same  designation,  'the  God  of  peace,' 
united  with  the  other,  'that  brought  again  from  the 
dead  the  Lord  Jesus,  that  great  Shepherd  of  the  sheep,' 
is  laid  as  the  foundation  of  the  prayer  for  the  perfect- 
ing of  the  readers  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  in 
every  good  work.  It  is,  then,  because  of  that  great 
name  that  the  Apostle  is  sure,  and  would  have  his 
Roman  brethren  to  be  sure,  that  Satan  shall  shortly 
be  bruised  under  their  feet.  No  doubt  there  may  have 
been  some  reference  in  Paul's  mind  to  what  he  had 
just  said  about  those  who  caused  divisions  in  the 
Church ;  but,  if  there  is  such  reference,  it  is  of  secondary 
importance.  Paul  is  gazing  on  all  the  great  things  in 
God  which  make  Him  the  God  of  peace,  and  in  them 
all  he  sees  ground  for  the  confident  hope  that  His 
power  will  be  exerted  to  crush  all  the  sin  that  breaks 
His  children's  peace. 

Now  the  first  thought  suggested  by  these  words  is 
the  solemn  glimpse  given  of  the  struggle  that  goes  on 
in  every  Christian  soul. 


390        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.xvi. 

Two  antagonists  are  at  hand-grips  in  every  one  of 
us.  On  the  one  hand,  the  '  God  of  peace,'  on  the  other, 
'  Satan.'  If  you  believe  in  the  personality  of  the  One, 
do  not  part  with  the  belief  in  the  personality  of  the 
other.  If  you  believe  that  a  divine  power  and  Spirit 
is  ready  to  help  and  strengthen  you,  do  not  think  so 
lightly  of  the  enemies  that  are  arrayed  against  you  as 
to  falter  in  the  belief  that  there  is  a  great  personal 
Power,  rooted  in  evil,  who  is  warring  against  each  of 
us.  Ah,  brethren !  we  live  far  too  much  on  the  surface, 
and  we  neither  go  down  deep  enough  to  the  dark  source 
of  the  Evil,  nor  rise  high  enough  to  the  radiant 
Fountain  of  the  Good.  It  is  a  shallow  life  that  strikes 
that  antagonism  of  God  and  Satan  out  of  itself.  And 
though  the  belief  in  a  personal  tempter  has  got  to  be 
very  unfashionable  nowadays,  I  am  going  to  venture 
to  say  that  you  may  measure  accurately  the  vitality 
and  depth  of  a  man's  religion  by  the  emphasis  with 
which  he  grasps  the  thought  of  that  great  antagonism. 
There  is  a  star  of  light,  and  there  is  a  star  of  darkness ; 
and  they  revolve,  as  it  were,  round  one  centre. 

But  whilst,  on  the  one  hand,  our  Christianity  is  made 
shallow  in  proportion  as  we  ignore  this  solemn  reality, 
on  the  other  hand,  it  is  sometimes  paralysed  and  per- 
verted by  our  misunderstanding  of  it.  For,  notice, 
'  the  God  of  peace  shall  bruise  Satan  under  your  feet.' 
Yes,  it  is  God  that  bruises,  but  He  uses  our  feet  to  do 
it.  It  is  God  from  whom  the  power  comes,  but  the 
power  works  through  us,  and  we  are  neither  merely 
the  field,  nor  merely  the  prize,  of  the  conflict  between 
these  two,  but  we  ourselves  have  to  put  all  our  pith 
into  the  task  of  keeping  down  the  flat,  speckled  head 
that  has  the  poison  gland  in  it.  '  The  God  of  peace ' — 
blessed  be  His  Name — '  shall  bruise  Satan  under  your 


V.20]  A  CRUSHED  SNAKE  391 

feet,'  but  it  will  need  the  tension  of  your  muscles,  and 
the  downward  force  of  your  heel,  if  the  wriggling 
reptile  is  to  be  kept  under. 

Turn,  now,  to  the  other  thought  that  is  here,  the 
promise  and  pledge  of  victory  in  the  name,  the  God  of 
peace.  I  have  already  referred  to  two  similar  designa- 
tions of  God  in  the  previous  chapter,  and  if  we  take 
them  in  union  with  this  one  in  our  text,  what  a  wonder- 
fully beautiful  and  strengthening  threefold  view  of 
that  divine  nature  do  we  get !  '  The  God  of  patience  and 
consolation '  is  the  first  of  the  linked  three.  It  heads 
the  list,  and  blessed  is  it  that  it  does,  because,  after  all, 
sorrow  makes  up  a  very  large  proportion  of  the  ex- 
perience of  us  all,  and  what  most  men  seem  to  them- 
selves to  need  most  is  a  God  that  will  bear  their 
sorrows  with  them  and  help  them  to  bear,  and  a  God 
.that  will  comfort  them.  But,  supposing  that  He  has 
been  made  known  thus  as  the  source  of  endurance  and 
the  God  of  all  consolation.  He  becomes  'the  God  of 
hope,'  for  a  dark  background  flings  up  a  light  fore- 
ground, and  a  comforted  sorrow  patiently  endured  is 
mighty  to  produce  a  radiant  hope.  The  rising  of  the 
muddy  waters  of  the  Nile  makes  the  heavy  crops  of 
'corn  in  Egypt.'  So  the  name  'the  God  of  hope'  fitly 
follows  the  name  '  the  God  of  patience  and  conso- 
lation.' 

Then  we  come  to  the  name  in  my  text,  built  perhaps 
on  the  other  two,  or  at  least  reminiscent  of  them,  and 
recalling  them,  *  the  God  of  peace,'  who,  through 
patience  and  consolation,  through  hope,  and  through 
many  another  gift,  breathes  the  benediction  of  His  own 
great  tranquillity  and  unruffled  calm  over  our  agitated, 
distracted,  sinful  hearts.  In  connection  with  one  of 
those  previous  designations  to  which  I  have  referred, 


392        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.xvi. 

the  Apostle  has  a  prayer  very  different  in  form  from 
this,  but  identical  in  substance,  when  he  says  '  the  God 
of  hope  fill  you  with  all  joy  and  peace  in  believing.' 
Is  not  that  closely  allied  to  the  promise  of  my  text, 
'  The  God  of  peace  shall  bruise  Satan  under  your  feet 
shortly '  ?  Is  there  any  surer  way  of  *  bruising  Satan ' 
under  a  man's  feet  than  filling  him  '  with  joy  and  peace 
in  believing '  ?  What  can  the  Devil  do  to  that  man  ? 
If  his  soul  is  saturated,  and  his  capacities  filled,  with 
that  pure  honey  of  divine  joy,  will  he  have  any  taste 
for  the  coarse  dainties,  the  leeks  and  the  garlic,  that 
the  Devil  offers  him  ?  Is  there  any  surer  way  of 
delivering  a  man  from  the  temptations  of  his  own 
baser  nature,  and  the  solicitations  of  this  busy  intrusive 
world  round  about  him,  than  to  make  him  satisfied 
with  the  goodness  of  the  Lord,  and  conscious  in  his 
daily  experience  of  '  all  joy  and  peace '  ?  Fill  the  vessel 
with  wine,  and  there  is  no  room  for  baser  liquors  or 
for  poison.  I  suppose  that  the  way  by  which  you  and  I, 
dear  friends,  will  most  effectually  conquer  any  tempta- 
tions, is  by  falling  back  on  the  superior  sweetness  of 
divine  joys.  When  we  live  upon  manna  we  do  not 
crave  onions.  So  He  'will  bruise  Satan  under  your 
feet '  by  giving  that  which  will  arm  your  hearts  against 
all  his  temptations  and  all  his  weapons.  Blessed  be 
God  for  the  way  of  conquest,  which  is  the  possession 
of  a  supremer  good ! 

But  then,  notice  how  beautifully  too  this  name,  *  the 
God  of  peace,'  comes  in  to  suggest  that  even  in  the 
strife  there  may  be  tranquillity.  I  remember  in  an  old 
church  in  Italy  a  painting  of  an  Archangel  with  his 
foot  on  the  dragon's  neck,  and  his  sword  thrust  through 
its  scaly  armour.  It  is  perhaps  the  feebleness  of  the 
artist's  hand,  but  I  think  rather  it  is  the  clearness  of 


V.  20]  A  CRUSHED  SNAKE  393 

his  insight,  which  has  led  him  to  represent  the  victorious 
angel,  in  the  moment  in  which  he  is  slaying  the  dragon, 
as  with  a  smile  on  his  face,  and  not  the  least  trace  of 
effort  in  the  arm,  which  is  so  easily  smiting  the  fatal 
blow.  Perhaps  if  the  painter  could  have  used  his 
brush  better  he  would  have  put  more  expression  into 
the  attitude  and  the  face,  but  I  think  it  is  better  as  it 
is.  "We,  too,  may  achieve  a  conquest  over  the  dragon 
which,  although  it  requires  effort,  does  not  disturb 
peace.  There  is  a  possibility  of  bruising  that  slippery 
head  under  my  foot,  and  yet  not  having  to  strain 
myself  in  the  process.  We  may  have  *  peace  subsisting 
at  the  heart  of  endless  agitation.'  Do  you  remember 
how  the  Apostle,  in  another  place,  gives  us  the  same 
beautiful — though  at  first  sight  contradictory — combi- 
nation when  he  says, '  The  peace  of  God  shall  garrison 
your  heart'? 

'  My  soul  I  there  is  a  country 
Far,  far  beyond  the  stars, 
Where  stands  an  armed  sentryt 
All  skilful  in  the  wars.' 

And  her  name  is  Peace,  as  the  poet  goes  on  to  tell  us. 
Ah,  brethren !  if  we  lived  nearer  the  Lord,  we  should 
find  it  more  possible  to  *  fight  the  good  fight  of  faith,' 
and  yet  to  have  •  our  feet  shod  with  the  preparedness 
of  the  gospel  of  peace.' 

•The  God  of  peace  shall  bruise  Satan  under  your 
feet ' ;  and  in  bruising  He  will  give  you  His  peace  to  do 
it,  and  His  peace  in  doing  it,  and  in  still  greater 
measure  after  doing  it.  For  every  struggle  of  the 
Christian  soul  adds  something  to  the  subsequent  depth 
of  its  tranquillity.  And  so  the  name  of  the  God  of 
peace  is  our  pledge  of  victory  in,  and  of  deepened  peace 
after,  our  warfare  with  sin  and  temptation. 


394        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.  xvi. 

Lastly,  note  the  swiftness  with  which  Paul  expects 
that  this  process  shall  be  accomplished. 

I  dare  say  that  he  was  thinking  about  the  coming  of 
the  Lord,  when  all  the  fighting  and  struggle  would  be 
over,  and  that  when  he  said  '  God  shall  bruise  him 
under  your  feet  shortly,'  there  lay  in  the  back  of  his 
mind  the  thought, '  the  Lord  is  at  hand.'  But  be  that 
as  it  may,  there  is  another  way  of  looking  at  the  words. 
They  are  not  in  the  least  like  our  experience,  are  they  ? 
'  Shortly ! ' — and  here  am  I,  a  Christian  man  for  the 
last  half  century  perhaps ;  and  have  I  got  much  further 
on  in  my  course  ?  Have  I  brought  the  sin  that  used 
to  trouble  me  much  down,  and  is  my  character  much 
miore  noble,  Christ-like,  than  it  was  long  years  ago? 
Would  other  people  say  that  it  is  ?  Instead  of  '  shortly ' 
we  ought  to  put '  slowly '  for  the  most  of  us.  But,  dear 
friend,  the  ideal  is  swift  conquest,  and  it  is  our  fault 
and  our  loss,  if  the  reality  is  sadly  diJfferent. 

There  are  a  great  many  evils  that,  unless  they  are 
conquered  suddenly,  have  very  small  chance  of  ever 
being  conquered  at  all.  You  never  heard  of  a  man 
being  cured  of  his  love  of  intoxicating  drink,  for 
instance,  by  a  gradual  process.  The  serpent's  life  is 
not  crushed  out  of  it  by  gradual  pressure,  but  by  one 
vigorous  stamp  of  a  nervous  heel. 

But  if  my  experience  as  a  Christian  man  does  not 
enable  me  to  set  to  my  seal  that  this  text  is  true,  the 
text  itself  will  tell  me  why.  It  is  *  the  God  of  peace ' 
that  is  going  to  '  bruise  Satan.'  Do  you  keep  yourself 
in  touch  with  Him,  dear  friend  ?  And  do  you  let  His 
powers  come  uninterruptedly  and  continuously  into 
your  spirit  and  life  ?  It  is  sheer  folly  and  self-delusion 
to  wonder  that  the  medicine  does  not  work  as  quickly 
as  was  promised,  if  you  do  not  take  the  medicine.    The 


V.  20]  TERTIUS  395 

slow  process  by  which,  at  the  best,  many  Christian 
people  'bruise  Satan  under  their  feet,'  during  which 
he  hurts  their  heels  more  than  they  hurt  his  head,  is 
mainly  due  to  their  breaking  the  closeness  and  the 
continuity  of  their  communion  with  God  in  Jesus 
Christ. 

,  But,  after  all,  it  is  Heaven's  chronology  that  we  have 
to  do  with  here.  •  Shortly,'  and  it  will  be  '  shortly,'  if 
we  reckon  by  heavenly  scales  of  duration.  Weeping 
may  endure  for  a  night,  but  joy  cometh  in  the  morn- 
ing.' •  The  Lord  will  help  her,  and  that  right  early.' 
'  The  Lord  is  at  hand.'  When  we  get  yonder,  ah !  how 
all  the  long  years  of  fighting  will  have  dwindled  down, 
and  we  shall  say  '  the  Lord  did  help  me,  and  that  right 
early,'  and  though  there  may  have  been  more  than 
threescore  years  and  ten  of  fighting,  that,  while  we 
were  in  the  thick  of  it,  did  not  seem  to  come  to  much, 
we  shall  then  look  back  and  say :  *  Yes,  Lord,  it  was  but 
for  a  moment,  and  it  has  brought  me  to  the  undying 
day  of  Eternal  Peace.' 


TERTIUS 

•I,  Tartiua/whowrl'^'  ihe  epistle,  salnte  you  in  the  Lord.'— Romans xri.  82 (R.V.). 

One  sometimes  sees  in  old  religious  pictures,  in  some 
obscure  corner,  a  tiny  kneeling  figure,  the  portrait  of 
the  artist.  So  Tertius  here  gets  leave  to  hold  the  pen 
for  a  moment  on  his  own  account,  and  from  Corinth 
sends  his  greeting  to  his  unknown  brethren  in  Rome. 
Apparently  he  was  a  stranger  to  them,  and  needed  to 
introduce  himself.  He  is  never  heard  of  before  or 
since.  For  one  brief  moment  he  is  visible,  like  a  star 
of  a  low  magnitude,  shining  out  for   a  moment  be- 


396        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.  xvi. 

tween  two  banks  of  darkness  and  then  swallowed  up. 
Judging  by  his  name,  he  was  probably  a  Roman,  and 
possibly  had  some  connection  with  Italy,  but  clearly 
was  a  stranger  to  the  Church  in  Rome.  We  do  not 
know  whether  he  was  a  resident  in  Corinth,  where  he 
wrote  this  epistle,  or  one  of  Paul's  travelling  com- 
panions. Probably  he  was  the  former,  as  his  name 
never  recurs  in  any  of  Paul's  letters.  One  can  under- 
stand the  impulse  which  led  him  for  one  moment  to 
come  out  of  obscurity  and  to  take  up  personal  rela- 
tions with  those  who  had  so  long  enjoyed  his  pen.  He 
would  fain  float  across  the  deep  gulf  of  alienation  a 
thread  of  love  which  looked  like  gossamer,  but  has 
proved  to  be  stronger  than  centuries  and  revolutions. 

This  humble  and  modest  greeting  is  an  expres- 
sion of  a  sentiment  which  the  world  may  smile  at, 
but  which,  being  'in  the  Lord,'  partakes  of  immor- 
tality. No  doubt  the  world's  hate  drove  more  closely 
together  all  the  disciples  in  primitive  times ;  but  the 
yearning  of  Tertius  for  some  little  corner  in  the  love 
of  his  Roman  brethren  might  well  influence  us  to-day. 
There  ought  to  be  an  effort  of  imagination  going  out  to- 
wards unknown  brethren.  Christian  love  is  not  meant 
to  be  kept  within  the  limits  of  sight  and  personal 
knowledge;  it  should  overleap  the  narrow  bounds  of 
the  communities  to  which  we  belong,  and  expatiate 
over  the  whole  wide  field.  The  great  Shepherd  has 
prescribed  for  us  the  limits  to  the  very  edge  of  which 
our  Christian  love  should  consciously  go  forth,  and 
has  rebuked  the  narrowness  to  which  we  are  prone, 
when  He  has  said, '  Other  sheep  I  have  which  are  not 
of  this  fold.'  We  are  all  too  prone  to  let  identities  of 
opinion  and  of  polity,  or  even  the  accident  of  locality, 
set  bounds  to  our  consciousness  of  brotherhood ;  and 


V.22]  TERTIUS  397 

the  example  of  this  little  gush  of  affection,  that 
reaches  out  a  hand  across  the  ocean  and  grasps  the 
hands  of  unknown  partakers  in  the  common  life  of 
the  one  Lord,  may  well  shame  us  out  of  our  narrow- 
ness, and  quicken  us  into  a  wide  perception  and 
deepened  feeling  towards  all  who  in  every  place  call 
up  Jesus  Christ  as  their  Lord — '  both  their  Lord  and 
ours.* 

Another  lesson  which  we  may  learn  from  Tertius' 
characterisation  of  himself  is  the  dignity  of  subordin- 
ate work  towards  a  great  end.  His  office  as  amanuensis 
was  very  humble,  but  it  was  quite  as  necessary  as 
Paul's  inspired  fervour.  It  is  to  him  that  we  owe  our 
possession  of  the  Epistle ;  it  is  to  him  that  Paul  owed 
it  that  he  was  able  to  record  in  imperishable  words 
the  thoughts  that  welled  up  in  his  mind,  and  would 
have  been  lost  if  Tertius  had  not  been  at  his  side.  The 
power  generated  in  the  boilers  does  its  work  through 
machines  of  which  each  little  cog-wheel  is  as  indis- 
pensable as  the  great  shafts.  Members  of  the  body 
which  seem  to  be  '  more  feeble,  are  necessary.'  Every 
note  in  a  great  concerted  piece  of  music,  and  every 
instrument,  down  to  the  triangle  and  the  little  drum 
in  the  great  orchestra,  is  necessary.  This  lesson  of 
the  dignity  of  subordinate  work  needs  to  be  laid  to 
heart  both  by  those  who  think  themselves  to  be 
capable  of  more  important  service,  and  by  those  who 
have  to  recognise  that  the  less  honourable  tasks  are 
all  for  which  they  are  fit.  To  the  former  it  may  preach 
humility,  the  latter  it  may  encourage.  We  are  all 
very  ignorant  of  what  is  great  and  what  is  small  in 
the  matter  of  our  Christian  service,  and  we  have 
sometimes  to  look  very  closely  and  to  clear  away  a 
great  many   vulgar    misconceptions    before    we    can 


398        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.xvi. 

clearly  discriminate  between  mites  and  talents.  *  We 
know  not  which  may  prosper,  whether  this  or  that ' ; 
and  in  our  ignorance  of  what  it  may  please  God  to 
bring  out  of  any  service  faithfully  rendered  to  Him, 
we  had  better  not  be  too  sure  that  true  service  is  ever 
small,  or  that  the  work  that  attracts  attention  and  is 
christened  by  men  •  great '  is  really  so  in  His  eyes.  It 
is  well  to  have  the  noble  ambition  to  '  desire  earnestly 
the  greater  gifts,'  but  it  is  better  to  '  follow  the  more 
excellent  way,'  and  to  seek  after  the  love  which  knows 
nothing  of  great  or  small,  and  without  which  prophecy 
and  the  knowledge  of  all  mysteries,  and  all  conspicuous 
and  all  the  shining  qualities  profit  nothing. 

We  can  discern  in  Tertius'  words  a  little  touch  of 
what  we  may  call  pride  in  his  work.  No  doubt  he 
knew  it  to  be  subordinate,  but  he  also  knew  it  to  be 
needful ;  and  no  doubt  he  had  put  all  his  strength  into 
doing  it  well.  No  man  will  put  his  best  into  any  task 
which  he  does  not  undertake  in  such  a  spirit.  It  is  a 
very  plain  piece  of  homely  wisdom  that '  what  is  worth 
doing  at  all  is  worth  doing  well.'  Without  a  lavish 
expenditure  of  the  utmost  care  and  effort,  our  work 
will  tend  to  be  slovenly  and  unpleasing  to  God,  and 
man,  and  to  ourselves.  We  may  be  sure  there  were  no 
blots  and  bits  of  careless  writing  in  Tertius'  manu- 
script, and  that  he  would  not  have  claimed  the  friendly 
feelings  of  his  Roman  brethren,  if  he  had  not  felt  that 
he  had  put  his  best  into  the  writing  of  this  epistle. 
The  great  word  of  King  David  has  a  very  wide  applica- 
tion. *  I  will  not  take  that  which  is  thine  for  the  Lord, 
nor  offer  burnt  offerings  without  cost.' 

Tertius'  salutation  may  suggest  to  us  the  best  thing 
by  which  to  be  remembered.  All  his  life  before  and 
^fter   the   hours  spent   at  Paul's  side  has   sunk   in 


V.22]  QUARTUS  A  BROTHER  399 

oblivion.  He  wished  to  be  known  only  as  having 
written  the  Epistle.  Christian  souls  ought  to  desire 
to  live  chiefly  in  the  remembrance  of  those  to  whom 
they  have  been  known  as  having  done  some  little  bit 
of  work  for  Jesus  Christ.  We  may  well  ask  ourselves 
whether  there  is  anything  in  our  lives  by  which  we 
should  thus  wish  to  be  remembered.  All  our  many 
activities  will  sink  into  silence ;  but  if  the  stream  of 
our  life,  which  has  borne  along  down  its  course  so 
much  mud  and  sand,  has  brought  some  grains  of  gold 
in  the  form  of  faithful  and  loving  service  to  Christ 
and  men — these  will  not  be  lost  in  the  ocean,  but 
treasured  by  Him.  What  we  do  for  Jesus  and  to 
spread  the  knowledge  of  His  name  is  the  immortal 
part  of  our  mortal  lives,  and  abides  in  His  memory 
and  in  blessed  results  in  our  own  characters,  when  all 
the  rest  that  made  our  busy  and  often  stormy  days 
has  passed  into  oblivion.  All  that  we  know  of  Tertius 
who  wrote  this  Epistle  is  that  he  wrote  it.  Well  will 
it  be  for  us  if  the  summary  of  our  lives  be  something 
like  that  of  his  I 


QUARTUS  A  BROTHER 

'Quartus  a  brother.'— Romans  xtL  98, 

I  AM  afraid  very  few  of  us  read  often,  or  with  much 
interest,  those  long  lists  of  names  at  the  end  of  Paul's 
letters.  And  yet  there  are  plenty  of  lessons  in  them, 
if  anybody  will  look  at  them  lovingly  and  carefully. 
There  does  not  seem  much  in  these  three  words ;  but 
I  am  very  much  mistaken  if  they  will  not  prove  to  be 
full  of  beauty  and  pathos,  and  to  open  out  into  a 


400        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.  xvi. 

wonderful  revelation  of  what  Christianity  is  and  does, 
as  soon  as  we  try  to  freshen  them  up  into  some  kind 
of  human  interest. 

It  is  easy  for  us  to  make  a  little  picture  of  this 
brother  Quartus.  He  is  evidently  an  entire  stranger 
to  the  Church  in  Rome.  They  had  never  heard  his 
name  before :  none  of  them  knew  anything  about  him. 
Further,  he  is  evidently  a  man  of  no  especial  reputa- 
tion or  position  in  the  Church  at  Corinth,  from  which 
Paul  writes.  He  contrasts  strikingly  with  the  others 
who  send  salutations  to  Rome.  *  Timotheus,  my  work- 
fellow' — the  companion  and  helper  of  the  Apostle, 
whose  name  was  known  everywhere  among  the 
Churches,  heads  the  list.  Then  come  other  prominent 
men  of  his  more  immediate  circle.  Then  follows  a 
loving  greeting  from  Paul's  amanuensis,  who,  naturally, 
as  the  pen  is  in  his  own  hand,  says :  •  7,  Tertius,  who 
wrote  this  epistle,  salute  you  in  the  Lord.'  Then 
Paul  begins  again  to  dictate,  and  the  list  runs  on. 
Next  comes  a  message  from  '  Gains  mine  host,  and  of 
the  whole  Church' — an  influential  man  in  the  com- 
munity, apparently  rich,  and  willing,  as  well  as  able, 
to  extend  to  them  large  and  loving  hospitality. 
Erastus,  the  chamberlain  or  treasurer  of  the  city, 
follows — a  man  of  consequence  in  Corinth.  And  then, 
among  all  these  people  of  mark,  comes  the  modest, 
quiet  Quartus.  He  has  no  wealth  like  Gains,  nor 
civic  position  like  Erastus,  nor  wide  reputation  like 
Timothy.  He  is  only  a  good,  simple,  unknown  Chris- 
tian. He  feels  a  spring  of  love  open  in  his  heart  to 
these  brethren  far  across  the  sea,  whom  he  never  met. 
He  would  like  them  to  know  that  he  thought  lovingly 
of  them,  and  to  be  lovingly  thought  of  by  them.  So 
he  begs  a  little  corner  in  Paul's  letter,  and  gets  it; 


T.23]  QUARTUS  A  BROTHER  401 

and  there,  in  his  little  niche,  like  some  statue  of  a 
forgotten  saint,  scarce  seen  amidst  the  glories  of  a 
great  cathedral,  *  Quartus  a  brother '  stands  to  all  time. 

The  first  thing  that  strikes  me  in  connection  with 
these  words  is,  how  deep  and  real  they  show  that  new 
bond  of  Christian  love  to  have  been. 

A  little  incident  of  this  sort  is  more  impressive  than 
any  amount  of  mere  talk  about  the  uniting  influence 
of  the  Gospel.  Here  we  get  a  glimpse  of  the  power 
in  actual  operation  in  a  man's  heart,  and  if  we  think 
of  all  that  this  simple  greeting  presupposes  and  im- 
plies, and  of  all  that  had  to  be  overcome  before  it 
could  have  been  sent,  we  may  well  see  in  it  the  sign 
of  the  greatest  revolution  that  was  ever  wrought  in 
men's  relations  to  one  another.  Quartus  was  an  in- 
habitant of  Corinth,  from  which  city  this  letter  was 
written.  His  Roman  name  may  indicate  Roman 
descent,  but  of  that  we  cannot  be  sure.  Just  as 
probably  he  may  have  been  a  Greek  by  birth,  and  so 
have  had  to  stretch  his  hand  across  a  deep  crevasse 
of  national  antipathy,  in  order  to  clasp  the  hands 
of  his  brethren  in  the  great  city.  There  was  little  love 
lost  between  Rome,  the  rough  imperious  conqueror, 
and  Corinth,  prostrate  and  yet  restive  under  her 
bonds,  and  nourishing  remembrances  of  a  freedom 
which  Rome  had  crushed,  and  of  a  culture  that  Rome 
haltingly  followed. 

And  how  many  other  deep  gulfs  of  separation  had 
to  be  bridged  before  that  Christian  sense  of  oneness 
could  be  felt!  It  is  impossible  for  us  to  throw  our- 
selves completely  back  to  the  condition  of  things  which 
the  Gospel  found.  The  world  then  was  like  some  great 
field  of  cooled  lava  on  the  slopes  of  a  volcano,  all 
broken  up  by  a  labyrinth  of  clefts  and  cracks,  at  the 

20 


402        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.xvi. 

bottom  of  which  one  can  see  the  flicker  of  sulphurous 
flames.  Great  gulfs  of  national  hatred,  of  fierce 
enmities  of  race,  language,  and  religion ;  wide  separa- 
tions of  social  condition,  far  profounder  than  anything 
of  the  sort  which  we  know,  split  mankind  into  frag- 
ments. On  the  one  side  was  the  freeman,  on  the 
other,  the  slave ;  on  the  one  side,  the  Gentile,  on  the 
other,  the  Jew;  on  the  one  side,  the  insolence  and 
hard-handedness  of  Roman  rule,  on  the  other,  the 
impotent,  and  therefore  envenomed,  hatred  of  con- 
quered peoples. 

And  all  this  fabric,  full  of  active  repulsions  and 
disintegrating  forces,  was  bound  together  into  an 
artificial  and  unreal  unity  by  the  iron  clamp  of  Rome's 
power,  holding  up  the  bulging  walls  that  were  ready 
to  fall — the  unity  of  the  slave-gang  manacled  together 
for  easier  driving.  Into  this  hideous  condition  of 
things  the  Gospel  comies,  and  silently  flings  its  clasping 
tendrils  over  the  wide  gaps,  and  binds  the  crumbling 
structure  of  human  society  with  a  new  bond,  real  and 
living.  We  know  well  enough  that  that  was  so,  but 
we  are  helped  to  apprehend  it  by  seeing,  as  it  were,  the 
very  process  going  on  before  our  eyes,  in  this  message 
from  •  Quartus  a  brother.' 

It  reminds  us  that  the  very  notion  of  humanity,  and 
of  the  brotherhood  of  man,  is  purely  Christian.  A 
world-embracing  society,  held  together  by  love,  was 
not  dreamt  of  before  the  Gospel  came ;  and  since  the 
Gospel  came  it  is  more  than  a  dream.  If  you  wrench 
away  the  idea  from  its  foundation,  as  people  do  who 
talk  about  fraternity,  and  seek  to  bring  it  to  pass 
without  Christ,  it  is  a  mere  piece  of  Utopian  sentiment 
— a  fine  dream.  But  in  Christianity  it  worked.  It 
works  imperfectly  enough,  God  knows,    Still  there  is 


V.  23]  QUARTUS  A  BROTHER  403 

some  reality  in  it,  and  some  power.  The  Gospel  first 
of  all  produced  the  thing  and  the  practice,  and  then 
the  theory  came  afterwards.  The  Church  did  not  talk 
much  about  the  brotherhood  of  man,  or  the  unity  of 
the  race;  but  simply  ignored  all  distinctions,  and 
gathered  into  the  fold  the  slave  and  his  master,  the 
Roman  and  his  subject,  fair-haired  Goths  and  swarthy 
Arabians,  the  worshippers  of  Odin  and  of  Zeus,  the 
Jew  and  the  Gentile.  That  actual  unity,  utterly  irre- 
spective of  all  distinctions,  which  came  naturally  in 
the  train  of  the  Gospel,  was  the  first  attempt  to  realise 
the  oneness  of  the  race,  and  first  taught  the  world 
that  all  men  were  brethren. 

And  before  this  simple  word  of  greeting  could  have 
been  sent,  and  the  unknown  man  in  Corinth  felt  love 
to  a  company  of  unknown  men  in  Rome,  some  pro- 
found new  impulse  must  have  been  given  to  the  world ; 
something  altogether  unlike  any  of  the  forces  hitherto 
in  existence.  What  was  that  ?  "What  should  it  be  but 
the  story  of  One  who  gave  Himself  for  the  whole 
world,  who  binds  men  into  a  unity  because  of  His 
common  relation  to  them  all,  and  through  whom  the 
great  proclamation  can  be  made:  'There  is  neither 
Jew  nor  Greek,  there  is  neither  bond  nor  free,  there 
is  neither  male  nor  female,  for  ye  are  all  one  in  Christ 
Jesus.*  Brother  Quartus'  message,  like  some  tiny 
flower  above-ground  which  tells  of  a  spreading  root 
beneath,  is  a  modest  witness  to  that  mighty  revolu. 
tion,  and  presupposes  the  preaching  of  a  Saviour 
in  whom  he  and  his  unseen  friends  in  Rome  are 
one. 

So  let  us  learn  not  to  confine  our  sympathy  and  the 
play  of  our  Christian  affection  within  the  limits  of 
our  personal  knowledge.    We  must  go  further  a-field 


404        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.xvi. 

than  that.  Like  this  man,  let  us  sometimes  send  our 
thoughts  across  mountains  and  seas.  He  knew  nobody 
in  the  Roman  Church,  and  nobody  knew  him,  but  he 
wished  to  stretch  out  his  hand  to  them,  and  to  feel,  as 
it  were,  the  pressure  of  their  fingers  in  his  palm.  That 
is  a  pattern  for  us. 

Let  me  suggest  another  thing.  Quartus  was  a 
Corinthian.  The  Corinthian  Church  was  remarkable 
for  its  quarrellings  and  dissensions.  One  said, '  I  am  of 
Paul,  and  another,  I  of  Apollos,  and  I  of  Cephas,  and 
I  of  Christ.'  I  wonder  if  our  friend  Quartus  belonged 
to  any  of  these  parties  ?  There  is  nothing  more  likely 
than  that  he  had  a  much  warmer  glow  of  Christian 
love  to  the  brethren  over  there  in  Rome  than  to  those 
who  sat  on  the  same  bench  with  him  in  the  upper 
room  at  Corinth.  For  you  know  that  sometimes  it  is 
true  about  people,  as  well  as  about  scenery,  that 
•distance  lends  enchantment  to  the  view.'  A  great 
many  of  us  have  much  keener  sympathies  with 
•brethren'  who  are  well  out  of  our  reach,  and  whose 
peculiarities  do  not  jar  against  ours,  than  with  those 
who  are  nearest.  I  do  not  say  Quartus  was  one  of 
these,  but  he  may  very  well  have  been  one  of  the 
wranglers  in  Corinth  who  found  it  much  easier  to 
love  his  brother  whom  he  had  not  seen  than  his 
brother  whom  he  had  seen.  So  take  the  hint,  if  you 
need  it.  Do  not  let  your  Christian  love  go  wandering 
away  abroad  only,  but  keep  some  for  home  con- 
sumption. 

Again,  how  simply,  and  with  what  unconscious 
beauty,  the  deep  reason  for  our  Christian  unity  is 
given  in  that  one  word,  a  *  Brother.'  As  if  he  had  said. 
Never  mind  telling  them  anything  about  what  I  am, 
what  place  I  hold,  or  what  I  do.    Tell  them  I  am  a 


V.23]  QUARTUS  A  BROTHER  405 

brother,  that  will  be  enough.  It  is  the  only  name  by 
which  I  care  to  be  known;  it  is  the  name  which 
explains  my  love  to  them. 

"We  are  brethren  because  we  are  sons  of  one  Father. 
So  that  favourite  name,  by  which  the  early  Christians 
knew  each  other,  rested  upon  and  proclaimed  the  deep 
truth  that  they  knew  themselves  to  be  all  partakers 
of  a  common  life  derived  from  one  Parent.  When 
they  said  they  were  brethren,  they  implied, '  We  have 
been  born  again  by  the  word  of  God,  which  liveth  and 
abideth  for  ever.'  The  great  Christian  truth  of  re- 
generation, the  communication  of  a  divine  life  from 
God  the  Father,  through  Christ  the  Son,  by  the  Holy 
Spirit,  is  the  foundation  of  Christian  brotherhood.  So 
the  name  is  no  mere  piece  of  effusive  sentiment,  but 
expresses  a  profound  fact.  *To  as  many  as  received 
Him,  to  them  gave  He  power  to  become  the  sons  of 
God,*  and  therein  to  become  the  brethren  of  all  His 
sons. 

That  is  the  true  ground  of  our  unity,  and  of  our 
obligation  to  love  all  who  are  begotten  of  Him.  You 
cannot  safely  put  them  on  any  other  footing.  All 
else — identity  of  opinion,  similarity  of  practice  and 
ceremonial,  local  or  national  ties,  and  the  like — all  else 
is  insufficient.  It  may  be  necessary  for  Christian  com- 
munities to  require  in  addition  a  general  identity  of 
opinion,  and  even  some  uniformity  in  government  and 
form  of  worship ;  but  if  ever  they  come  to  fancy  that 
such  subordinate  conditions  of  visible  oneness  are  the 
grounds  of  their  spiritual  unity,  and  to  enforce  these 
as  such,  they  are  slipping  off  the  real  foundation,  and 
are  perilling  their  character  as  Churches  of  Christ. 
The  true  ground  of  the  unity  of  all  Christians  is  here : 
'  Have  we  not  all  one  Father  ? '    We  possess  a  kindred 


406        EPISTLE  TO  THE  ROMANS  [ch.  xvi. 

life  derived  from  Him.  We  are  a  family  of  brethren 
because  we  are  sons. 

Another  remark  is,  how  strangely  and  unwittingly 
this  good  man  has  got  himself  an  immortality  by  that 
passing  thought  of  his.  One  loving  message  has  won 
for  him  the  prize  for  which  men  have  joyfully  given 
life  itself, — an  eternal  place  in  history.  Wheresoever 
the  Gospel  is  preached  there  also  shall  this  be  told 
as  a  memorial  of  him.  How  much  surprised  he  would 
have  been  if,  as  he  leaned  forward  to  Tertius  hurrying 
to  end  his  task  and  said,  'Send  my  love  too,' anybody 
had  told  him  that  that  one  act  of  his  would  last  as 
long  as  the  world,  and  his  name  be  known  for  ever! 
And  how  much  ashamed  some  of  the  other  people  in 
the  New  Testament  would  have  been  if  they  had 
known  that  their  passing  faults — the  quarrel  of  Euodia 
and  Syntyche  for  instance — were  to  be  gibbeted  for 
ever  in  the  same  fashion!  How  careful  they  would 
have  been,  and  we  would  be,  of  our  behaviour  if  we 
knew  that  it  was  to  be  pounced  down  upon  and  made 
immortal  in  that  style !  Suppose  you  were  to  be  told 
— Your  thoughts  and  acts  to-morrow  at  twelve  o'clock 
will  be  recorded  for  all  the  world  to  read — you  would 
be  pretty  careful  how  you  behaved.  When  a  speaker 
sees  the  reporters  in  front  of  him,  he  weighs  his  words. 

Well,  Quartus'  little  message  is  written  down  here, 
and  the  world  knows  it.  All  our  words  and  works  are 
getting  put  down  too,  in  another  Book  up  there,  and 
it  is  going  to  be  read  out  one  day.  It  does  seem 
wonderful  that  you  and  I  should  live  as  we  do, 
knowing  that  all  the  while  that  God  is  recording  it 
all.  If  we  are  not  ashamed  to  do  things,  and  let 
Him  note  them  on  His  tablets  that  they  may  be 
for  the  time  to  come,  for  ever  and  ever,  it  is  strange 


V.  23]  QtJARTUS  A  BROTHER  407 

that  we  should  be  more  careful  to  attitudinise  and  pose 
ourselves  before  one  another  than  before  Him.  Let 
us  then  keep  ever  in  mind  *  those  pure  eyes  and  perfect 
witness  of  the  all- judging'  God.  The  eternal  record 
of  this  little  message  is  only  a  symbol  of  the  eternal 
life  and  eternal  record  of  all  our  transient  and  trivial 
thoughts  and  deeds  before  Him.  Let  us  live  so  that 
each  act,  if  recorded,  would  shine  with  some  modest 
ray  of  true  light  like  brother  Quartus'  greeting,  and 
let  us  seek  that,  like  him, — all  else  about  us  being 
forgotten,  position,  talents,  wealth,  buried  in  the  dust, 
— we  may  be  remembered,  if  we  are  remembered  at 
all,  by  such  a  biography  as  is  condensed  into  these 
three  words.  Who  would  not  wish  to  be  embalmed, 
so  to  speak,  in  such  a  record  ?  Who  would  not  wish  to 
have  such  an  epitaph  as  this?  A  sweet  fate  to  live 
for  ever  in  the  world's  memory  by  three  words  which 
tell  his  name,  his  Christianity,  and  his  brotherly  love ! 
So  far  as  we  are  remembered  at  all,  may  the  like  be 
our  life's  history  and  our  epitaph  1 


Wji- 


H4    'I 


O'gT'g  r'g>T 


W<n'""~>66 


;iS«^ 


